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Assessment of resilience and adaptability of social-ecological
systems: a case study of the Banaue rice terraces
Master Thesis
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science
Environmental Management
By
Adam Charette-Castonguay
First Reviewer: PD Dr. habil. Benjamin Burkhard
Second Reviewer: Prof. Dr. Felix Müller
February 2014
Institute for Natural Resource Conservation
Faculty of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences
Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel
Abstract
The rice terraces of the province of Ifugao, Philippines have been cultivated for several centuries.
Over this period of time, the ecological system has been strongly influenced by the indigenous
Ifugao people cultivating the rice fields. The culture and social habits of the inhabitants have
developed deep ties with the rice terraces. Thus, the two systems have become strongly interrelated
and interdependent. The processes and structures in this unique system have evolved for centuries
to produce an abundance of ecosystem services and benefits in one of the most impoverished
regions of the Philippines. In addition to rice production, the system provides several regulating
and cultural ecosystem services, such as erosion and flood control, recreational and educational
opportunities, as well as a formidable landscape scenery that has strongly contributed to the
expansion of tourism in the region.
However, these terraces are at present under increasing pressure. On the environmental side,
climate change, invasive alien species and erosion pose the greatest threats to the continuity of the
system. Concerning the human-induced pressures, land abandonment and urban migration,
application of pesticides and unmanaged tourism are susceptible to further damage the human-
environmental system and exacerbate other problems such as erosion.
This research aims at assessing the long-term development of ecosystem services and the adaptive
capacity of a rice-based cultural landscape. Taking the different pressures into consideration, the
thesis defines a suitable and relevant set of indicators describing the ecological and socioeconomic
state of the system. The resilience of the rice terraces and the community living off them is assessed
by comparing the result of these indicators with descriptions of the area in the previous literature.
The premise of this assessment is that ecosystems are developing through time to a point where
the necessary energy for the maintenance of the complexity of the system becomes untenable.
Moreover, as linked human-environment systems grow in complexity, they become more
vulnerable and susceptible to reorganization on long term through adaptive cycles. Finally,
considering the resilience of the system, management options to enhance the adaptive capacity and
improve the livelihood of the indigenous people of Ifugao are presented.
Keywords: Resilience, Adaptive capacity, Ecosystem services, Ifugao, Social-ecological systems.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisors Benjamin Burkhard and Felix Müller for allowing me in the
LEGATO Project, as well as for their inspired teaching on social-ecological systems, ecosystem
services and resilience. I am greatly indebted to the Advisory Service on Agricultural Research for
Development (Beratungsgruppe Entwicklungsorientierte Agrarforschung, BEAF) program of the
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) for the financial support that
made this thesis project possible. I sincerely hope that this thesis can contribute to the development
objectives of GIZ. I also thank the Crop and Environmental Sciences Division of the International
Rice Research Institute for hosting me at the Institute.
Special thanks go to Ms. Laeticia Palayon from Bangaan, and Mr. Alfredo Bunnol and Mr. Marcos
Mulao from Poitan, who took time to explain me in detail the customs and history of their town
and helped me with interpretation and translation during the interviews. Of course, I also thank
more generally the inhabitants of the municipality of Banaue, notably for their hospitality, who
see their environment change at a very fast pace and who have to deal with several challenges.
Finaly, I am grateful to Robin for his suggestions, to Ting for her inspiration and to my family
for their support at each stage of thesis process. I thank you all a lot.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1. Objectives of the research ............................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Significance of the study ................................................................................................................ 3
1.3. Overview of the thesis .................................................................................................................... 4
2. Conceptual framework .......................................................................................................................... 5
2.1. Rice-based agroecosystems as social-ecological systems ............................................................. 5
2.2. Social-ecological system properties and dynamics ...................................................................... 6
2.2.1. Disturbances ............................................................................................................................. 7
2.2.2. Vulnerability ............................................................................................................................. 8
2.2.3. Resilience................................................................................................................................ 10
2.2.4. Adaptive capacity ................................................................................................................... 11
2.2.5. Adaptive cycles ....................................................................................................................... 13
2.3. Indicators of social-ecological state ............................................................................................ 14
2.3.1. Food sovereignty .................................................................................................................... 16
2.3.2. Profitability ............................................................................................................................ 16
2.3.3. Traditional ecological knowledge .......................................................................................... 17
2.3.4. Demographics ........................................................................................................................ 17
2.3.5. Landscape heterogeneity ........................................................................................................ 18
2.3.6. Biotic diversity ........................................................................................................................ 19
2.3.7. Multiple uses of land and plants ............................................................................................. 19
2.3.8. Disturbance regime ................................................................................................................ 20
3. Methods ................................................................................................................................................ 21
3.1. The Legato Project ....................................................................................................................... 21
3.2. Description of the study area ...................................................................................................... 22
3.2.1. Agroforestry............................................................................................................................ 25
3.2.2. Swidden cultivation ................................................................................................................ 25
3.2.3. Rice terracing ......................................................................................................................... 25
3.2.4. Ifugao rice .............................................................................................................................. 26
3.2.5. Other landscape components ................................................................................................. 27
3.2.6. Societal features ..................................................................................................................... 29
3.2.7. Pressures on the system .......................................................................................................... 32
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3.3. Literature review .......................................................................................................................... 34
3.4. Household surveys ........................................................................................................................ 35
3.5. Indicators ...................................................................................................................................... 40
3.6. Limitation of the study................................................................................................................. 40
4. Results ................................................................................................................................................... 41
4.1. Socio-demographic characteristics ............................................................................................. 41
4.2. Food sovereignty .......................................................................................................................... 42
4.2.1. Autonomy from own rice field ................................................................................................ 42
4.2.2. Number of food sources .......................................................................................................... 43
4.3. Profitability ................................................................................................................................... 44
4.3.1. Income from agricultural products ........................................................................................ 44
4.3.2. Income from tourism .............................................................................................................. 45
4.4. Traditional ecological knowledge and practices ........................................................................ 45
4.4.1. Number of households still practicing rituals ........................................................................ 46
4.4.2. Proportion of households doing inado ................................................................................... 46
4.5. Demographics ............................................................................................................................... 47
4.5.1. Proportion of households practicing primogeniture .............................................................. 48
4.5.2. Household size and migration ................................................................................................ 48
4.6. Landscape heterogeneity ............................................................................................................. 49
4.6.1. Land uses maintained per household ..................................................................................... 49
4.7. Biotic diversity .............................................................................................................................. 50
4.7.1. Diversity of rice varieties ....................................................................................................... 50
4.7.2. Diversity of aquatic species in rice fields ............................................................................... 52
4.7.3. Diversity of plant species in woodlots .................................................................................... 52
4.8. Multiple uses of land and plants ................................................................................................. 54
4.8.1. Uses of forest products ........................................................................................................... 55
4.8.2. Uses of rice plant .................................................................................................................... 55
4.9. Disturbance regime ...................................................................................................................... 56
4.9.1. Amount of damaged terraces .................................................................................................. 56
4.9.2. Amount of damaged irrigation canals .................................................................................... 58
4.9.3. Proportion of invasive species................................................................................................ 59
4.10. Social-ecological state ........................................................................................................... 62
4.10.1. Resilience ........................................................................................................................ 63
4.10.2. Adaptability ..................................................................................................................... 66
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5. Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 67
5.1. Alternative states and future trajectories .................................................................................. 67
5.1.1. Alternative ecological states................................................................................................... 67
5.1.2. Future trajectories .................................................................................................................. 69
5.1.3. Climate change ....................................................................................................................... 71
5.2. Ecosystem services and well-being from rice terraces .............................................................. 72
5.3. Options to increase adaptability ................................................................................................. 76
5.3.1. Environmental fees ................................................................................................................. 76
5.3.2. Commercialization of tinawon rice ........................................................................................ 77
5.3.3. Eco-tourism development ....................................................................................................... 79
5.3.4. Adoption of ecosystem-based crop management .................................................................... 80
5.3.5. Introduction of environmental and cultural impact assessments ........................................... 81
5.3.6. Instilling values among youth ................................................................................................. 82
5.3.7. Local leadership ..................................................................................................................... 82
6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................... 84
References .................................................................................................................................................. 87
Appendix I: Household Survey for Banaue ............................................................................................. iii
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Table of Figures
Figure 1 Adaptive cycles and panarchy. ...................................................................................... 13
Figure 2 Adaptive management cycle of the Ifugao social-ecological system. ........................... 14
Figure 3 Location of the Ifugao province and its municipalities in the Philippines. ................... 22
Figure 4 Climate chart of the Ifugao Province. ............................................................................ 24
Figure 5 The Ifugao land use system. .......................................................................................... 29
Figure 6 Cropping seasons and related rituals. ............................................................................ 31
Figure 7 Flowchart of the survey process. ................................................................................... 36
Figure 8 Location of the five research sites in the Municipality of Banaue. ............................... 37
Figure 9 Boxplot of the respondents’ age in the three areas surveyed. ....................................... 42
Figure 10 Different sources of food maintained per household in each barangay. ..................... 43
Figure 11 Population change in Banaue from 1990 to 2010........................................................ 47
Figure 12 Population figures in Banaue per household in each barangay. .................................. 49
Figure 13 Land uses maintained in each barangay. ..................................................................... 50
Figure 14 Rice varieties in each barangay. .................................................................................. 51
Figure 15 Different uses of plant species found in forested areas in each barangay. .................. 55
Figure 16 Uses of rice plant after harvest. ................................................................................... 56
Figure 17 Proportion of damaged terraces in each barangay. ...................................................... 57
Figure 18 Change of the condition of the terraces over the last 10 years. ................................... 57
Figure 19 Condition of irrigation canals in each barangay. ......................................................... 59
Figure 20 Major pest species in each barangay. .......................................................................... 60
Figure 21 Damage caused by rodents on a rice paddy. ................................................................ 61
Figure 22 Comparison of the current state of the social-ecological system between the three
barangays. ..................................................................................................................................... 64
Figure 23 Adaptive cycles of the Ifugao rice terraces. ................................................................ 68
Figure 24 Tourist arrival contribution by municipality in 2006. ................................................. 74
Figure 25 Shift in the supply of regulating and provisioning ecosystem services. ...................... 75
Figure 26 Shift in the demand of cultural ecosystem services. .................................................... 76
Figure 27 Amount of rice sold and number of farmers involved in the RICE Inc. project.. ....... 78
Figure 28 Potential monetary benefits for the social-ecological system in Banaue. ................... 79
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List of Tables
Table 1 Disturbances in Ifugao under four categories. .................................................................. 7
Table 2 Resilience-related concepts and definitions. ..................................................................... 9
Table 3 Age estimations proposed for the creation of the Ifugao rice terraces. ........................... 22
Table 4 Timeline of major events in Banaue. .............................................................................. 23
Table 5 Indicators for social-ecological resilience of indigenous cultural landscapes. ............... 39
Table 6 Gender in percentage of respondents. ............................................................................. 41
Table 7 Self-sufficiency of households from their own rice fields. ............................................. 43
Table 8 Number of households with different forms of income. ................................................. 44
Table 9 Number of households with at least one member involved in different forms of tourism
and mean number of years of experience for households currently involved in tourism. ............ 45
Table 10 Number of households still practicing rituals and average number of rituals per
households per year....................................................................................................................... 46
Table 11 Proportion of households cultivating inado. ................................................................. 47
Table 12 Number of households currently practicing primogeniture in each barangay. ............. 48
Table 13 Rice varieties cultivated in the three study sites ........................................................... 51
Table 14 Number of households collecting aquatic species for food consumption. .................... 53
Table 15 Number of households cultivating the most common plant varieties in woodlots. ...... 54
Table 16 Diversity indices for rice varieties, aquatic species and private forests. ....................... 54
Table 17 Main reasons for the degradation and the improvement of rice terraces. ..................... 58
Table 18 Indicator values compared to the mean. ........................................................................ 63
Table 19 Comparison of the current value of indicators of the state of the social-ecological
system with the “traditional” value as described in the literature. ................................................ 65
Table 20 Four possible scenarios for the Banaue region. ............................................................ 70
Table 21 Trade-offs in ecosystem services and benefits related to new ecosystem structures
(introduced species) and social parameters (tourism). .................................................................. 73
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1. Introduction
The rice terraces of the Ifugao province in North Luzon, Philippines have long been regarded and
praised as a model of sustainability and durability (Conklin, 1967a; UNESCO, 1995, 1996; Araral,
2013). The communities have maintained an ecologically viable integration of natural and human-
created systems. The province, with its ecosystems and the indigenous people living off them, is
the pride of the Filipino people and the Banaue rice terraces are nationally considered as the “eighth
wonder of the world” (Dizon et al., 2012). Moreover, parts of the rice terraces in Ifugao were
included in the UNESCO World Heritage List (UNESCO, 2006), as well as one of the few
Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Sites identified by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (GIAHS; Koohafkan and Jane, 2011).
However, plenty of challenges face the Ifugao rice terraces system, challenges most common to
communities experiencing the transition from subsistence agriculture to market economy and
modern intensive agriculture (Tvedten, 1990; Wilson, 2010). The communities and ecosystems in
the region have been under different pressures as the country is rapidly developing, and one could
wonder whether the “eighth wonder” will remain a wonder in the decades to come, or shift to an
alternative state with new social and ecological structures. Considering the fast changes caused by
this transition, as well as climate change, the aim of this master’s thesis is to assess the long-term
development of the rice terraces of Banaue. Similar assessments have been conducted in the past
using biophysical, social and climate models from long-term datasets (Brenkert and Malone, 2005;
Burkhard et al., 2011a). This time, due to the unavailability of such datasets for this particular
region, the project applies the theories of resilience and social-ecological dynamics using an
indicator-based survey.
1.1. Objectives of the research
The objective of the study is to investigate long-term development of the social-ecological system
of the Banaue rice terraces in the province of Ifugao, Philippines. The development is not a natural
one in the sense of natural succession of undisturbed ecological system. It is rather a co-
development of social communities and ecosystems (mostly rice terraces, forests and swidden
fields), evolving through limitations and stresses over a long period of time. Several different
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disturbances have been mentioned in the last decades in the literature concerning the province of
Ifugao. Some of the perturbations are site-specific (e.g. tourism in the town of Batad; SITMo,
2008) and discrete in time (e.g. earthquake; Kwiatkowski, 2013), other being continuous
(e.g. establishment of exotic pest species; Joshi et al., 2000). These stresses and shocks should
be studied individually to assess their specific impacts.
Taking the current status of these pressures into consideration, as well as social and ecological
parameters, the study investigates the level of vulnerability, resilience and the adaptive capacity
of the rice terraces system of Banaue with the use of indicators. The purpose of assessing resilience
is to identify vulnerabilities in social-ecological systems so that action can be taken to create a
more sustainable future for people and the land (Berkes et al., 2003). In the specific case of
agroecosystems, building resilience gives a system the capacity to maintain its functions, for
example the ability to feed and clothe people, in the face of shocks while building the natural
capital based upon which they depend and providing a livelihood for the people who make it
function (Cabell and Oelofse, 2012). Albeit somewhat theoretical and potentially subjective, the
resilience assessment of cultural landscapes is becoming more studied, especially as drivers of
change are increasing around the world (Scheffer et al., 2001; Folke et al., 2002, 2004; Rockström
et al., 2009). Management options need to be identified to improve the ability of the communities
to adapt to current and future pressures, in order to maintain and improve livelihood. With these
objectives in mind, three research questions are being investigated in this study:
1- Is the system becoming more vulnerable, resilient or “adapted” as it develops?
2- What is the impact of the development of the system on ecosystem services and benefits?
3- Considering the different disturbances on the area, what management options may be
applicable to conserve benefits from ecosystems while improving the communities’
livelihood?
As pressures on the system are increasing, it is hypothesized that the traditional system is becoming
more difficult to maintain, i.e. vulnerable, and that resilience is declining. Also, the changes in the
system may have reduced the links between the ecosystems and the inhabitants of the region, the
latter moving away from farming activities to favor paid labor.
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The results of this thesis identify possible management options which could be replicated in other
areas with comparable social-ecological systems (SES) and similar issues, such as the Hani rice
terraces in Yunnan, China, Herath et al., 2013) and the terraces of Tana Toraja in Sulawesi,
Indonesia (Adams, 1995). Rice terraces are typically limited in their productivity because of their
higher altitude resulting in a cooler climate and less sunshine than on the lowland farms. Southeast
Asia is a part of the world with fast growing economies and populations, and as working
opportunities in the cities are increasing, rice farming might become less appealing (Jong et al.,
1986; Luis and Paris, 2003). Despite the importance of rice production in the region, low
productivity and cash crops may lead to a significant reduction of terrace-based rice production in
East-Asia, as it was the case in Malaysia (Othman, 1992; Kato, 1994) and Japan (Qiu et al., 2013)
in the last decades. Thus, research and policy options are needed to conserve traditional and
sustainable production of rice, the ecosystem benefits and the livelihood of the Ifugao people.
1.2. Significance of the study
This thesis examines potential alternative states of rice terracing. While abandonment of terrace
farming has been studied in some specific regions of the world, for instance in the Alps (Walther,
1986), the Mediterranean countries (Douglas et al., 1994; Lesschen et al., 2008; Bevan and Conolly,
2011), and the Middle-East (Vogel, 1988; Hammad and Børresen, 2006) alternative states of rice
terraces is rather unknown. Differences between resilience and adaptability in the context of rice
terraces will be analyzed. The resilience of social-ecological systems is a concept gaining in
popularity in the literature, but which is difficult to measure due to its complexity. A cooperation
between the Convention on Biological Diversity, Biodiversity International and the Institute of
Advanced Studies (IAS) of the United Nations University in Japan has resulted in the development
of indicators to assess resilience of agroecological systems in some regions of the world under the
the Satoyama Initiative (Bergamini et al., 2013). This present study, focused on a rice-based
agroecosystem, will contribute to such endeavor. These indicators and the methods used could be
further improved in future assessments.
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1.3. Overview of the thesis
The thesis is divided in six sections. Following the introduction, an overview of noteworthy
considerations and properties of agroecosystems, including the major attributes of social-
ecological systems such as disturbances, vulnerability, resilience, adaptability and adaptive cycles,
outlines the analytical background of the study. Indicators of resilience are then identified and
described (Chapter 2). In the next section, the study area is presented, with an emphasis on
ecological and social organizations, and the modern pressures on the system. The methods used
for this research are then presented, with a focus on the household survey used to evaluate proxies
of resilience (Chapter 3). Then, the data are compiled, organized and analyzed to give a value to
each indicator in order to assess the resilience and the degree of adaptability of the three areas
surveyed (Chapter 4). Thereafter, elements related to resilience are discussed, notably concerning
the possible future trajectories of the system, the change and trade-offs between the ecosystem
services and policy options that could improve the adaptability of the region to pressures (Chapter
5). Finally, the thesis concludes with key findings that could be drawn from this research (Chapter
6).
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2. Conceptual framework
This chapter covers the theoretical background of the study concerning the dynamics of long-term
development of social-ecological systems. Resilience is an important concept but several other
notions need to be taken into consideration to understand the development of human-environment
systems, such as disturbances, vulnerability, adaptive capacity and adaptive cycles. After
reviewing these concepts, eight indicators used as proxies to determine de level of social and
ecological resilience are be described.
2.1. Rice-based agroecosystems as social-ecological systems
A social-ecological system can be defined as a linked system of people and nature in which people
depend on nature and nature is influenced by people (Berkes et al., 2003). Social-ecological
systems can be studied at different scales, e.g. national or earth scale (Rockström et al., 2009; Liu
et al., 2013), but due to the high connections at the local level in Ifugao and comparably low
connections with the rest of the Philippines and the world, the social-ecological system is analyzed
in this study at a community scale.
Traditional agroecosystems are typical examples of highly connected social-ecological systems.
Agroecosystems can be defined as ecological and socioeconomic systems comprising
domesticated plants and/or animals and the people who husband them (Di Falco and Chavas, 2008).
They are intended for the purpose of producing food, fiber, and other agricultural products, and
often produce cultural ecosystem services as an emerging property. Ecological systems are
therefore transformed and simplified for the purpose of agriculture. For this reason, ecosystems
must be maintained at a certain stage of development, maintenance that requires energy and
resources.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment mentions agriculture as one of the main drivers behind
the degradation and depletion of ecosystem services (MA, 2005). Agricultural systems are seen as
a major cause of some of the most important pressures on ecosystems, some of which are soil
erosion, eutrophication of water bodies, invasive species occurrence, large-scale land conversion
and deforestation. However, the maintenance of the ecosystems through subsistence agriculture in
Banaue has created many benefits to humans with comparably low impacts on ecosystems such as
those mentioned by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The terraces help to stabilize slopes
6
and reduce the frequency and magnitude of landslides on this very steep terrain, with an average
slope of 18° in areas where irrigated pond-fields are located (Acabado, 2003). The terrace structure
also guarantees that water and nutrient are recycled as they flow down the terraces from the forest
to the river. In this way, nutrient leaching, eutrophication of water bodies downstream and water
shortage are very low.
The introduction of non-indigenous plant species brought a new biotic composition in the
agroforestry practiced in the woodlots. The arrival of new tree varieties in forested areas does not
have documented adverse effects, as could have invasive species, but rather enriches the flora
diversity and services and benefits to humans. For instance, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), or
Lapne in Ifugao, are not indigenous from the Philippines but have long been the main staple food
of the Ifugao next to rice, and in some areas, before rice (Brosius, 1988). By cultivating new plant
varieties, the Ifugao have multiplied their uses of the landscape for food provisioning, pest control,
fertilizer and irrigation, while native species are mainly used for firewood, construction and
medicine (Central Cordillera Agricultural Programme, 2003). However, if introduced plant
varieties provides benefits to farmers, this might not be the case for alien species in rice paddies.
The impacts of exotic aquatic species will be discussed below.
Agroecosystems are characterized by the presence of neighboring “wild” ecosystems and the
biodiversity contained within them. Pollinator diversity, pest control, reduced soil erosion and the
genetic material necessary for the continuous improvement of crop landraces are among the most
important ecosystem services sustaining traditional agriculture (Van Oudenhoven et al., 2011).
The cultural ecosystem service of landscape aesthetic supply is higher in the cultural landscape of
Ifugao than in the natural landscape. Ecosystem services are in fact enhancing in a context of
subsistence agriculture where the community is tightly linked to the agroecosystems, although they
seldom translate into monetary value.
2.2. Social-ecological system properties and dynamics
Social-ecological systems develop continually depending on their exposure to disturbances. This
development will also result from the vulnerability, the resilience and the adaptive capacity of the
system on the long-term. Also, it is suggested that social-ecological systems develop according to
an adaptive cycle, and on a longer temporal and larger spatial scale, to a panarchy of cycles.
7
2.2.1. Disturbances
Understanding disturbances is a critical part to assess the long-term development of a social-
ecological system. Schoon and Cox (2011) identify four types of disturbances which enables a
better understanding of the resilience of a system and the responses needed. They refer to these
four categories as follow:
1- Flow disturbance: a fluctuation of a flow into or out of a system
2- Parameter disturbance: a fluctuation in a parameter that affects a system
3- Network disturbance: a change in the network structure of the system
4- Connectivity disturbance: a change in the social or ecological connectivity between the
SES and the external environment
The Ifugao rice terraces experience the increasing effects of a set of disturbances which threatens
the conservation of the rice terraces. Following Schoon and Cox classification of disturbances, the
different pressures in Banaue can be categorized as in Table 1.
Table 1 Disturbances in Ifugao under four categories (Based on Schoon and Cox, 2011).
Disturbances can also be divided among stress and perturbation. Stress is a continuous or slowly
increasing pressure (e.g., soil degradation), commonly within the range of normal variability,
whereas perturbations are major spikes in pressure beyond the normal range of variability, e.g.
typhoon, in which the system operates, and commonly originate beyond the system or location in
question (Gallopín, 2006). Stresses must be adapted to and can be mitigated whereas perturbation
must be recovered from. For instance, tourism and invasive species can be controlled and mitigated
to a certain extent. If no control is possible, the social-ecological system must adapt to these
changes by limiting negative impacts. However, perturbation such as earthquakes and extreme
climatic events cannot be controlled and the system can only try to limit damages.
Disturbance types Disturbances in Ifugao Source
Flow disturbance El Niño Eder, 1982
Parameter disturbance Population Barthelmes et al., 1998
Network disturbance Invasive pest species Joshi et al., 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005
Connectivity disturbance Tourism, market economy SITMo, 2008
8
El Niño events (last in 2010) are particularly damaging in Ifugao and will possibly increase in
frequency in the future. The climate perturbations are characterized by longer periods of drought
and more intense rainfall, increasing the frequency and intensity of landslides and collapsed
terraces.
2.2.2. Vulnerability
Vulnerability is defined by Adger (2006) as the state of susceptibility to harm from exposure to
stresses associated with environmental and social change and from the absence of capacity to adapt.
It is therefore a system attribute existing prior to the disturbance, often related to the history of
disturbances to which the system was exposed in the past rather than an outcome of a perturbation
(Gallopín, 2006). Vulnerability is strongly related to exposure; the degree, duration, and/or extent
in which the system is in contact with, or subject to, perturbations (Adger, 2006; Kasperson et al.,
2005). Exposure is an attribute of the relationship between the system and the perturbation, rather
than of the system itself (Gallopín, 2006). Vulnerability also depends on the sensitivity of the
system, meaning the degree to which the system is modified or affected by an internal or external
disturbance or set of disturbances, which can be measured as the amount of transformation of the
system per unit of change in the disturbance (Gallopín, 2003).
Two other common assumptions regarding vulnerability are (1) the multiscale nature of the
perturbations and their effects upon the system and (2) the fact that most SESs are usually exposed
to multiple, interacting perturbations (van der Leeuw, 2001; Turner et al., 2003; Gallopín, 2006).
For instance, the exposure of the Ifugao rice terraces system to the combination of earthworms and
droughts cause by El Niño renders the system more vulnerable than if the two perturbation were
occurring separately (Eder, 1982).
There is little doubt that exposure, and accordingly vulnerability, increased significantly in Ifugao
in the last century. If El Niño and earthquakes are not new perturbations, the integration into the
market economy, tourism and introduced species have been more present in the Ifugao rice terraces
system since the Second World War. The town of Banaue is more exposed to tourism, as it is the
stepping stone for the other areas. For the same reason, it might also be more exposed to alien
species. Despite its remoteness, Batad is also very exposed to tourism, as opposed to Bangaan.
9
Table 2 Resilience-related concepts and definitions.
Adaptability Ability to adjust multiple disturbances, moderate potential
damage, take advantage of opportunities, and cope with the
consequences of a transformation that occurs (Gallopín,
2006).
Ecological resilience Propensity of a system to retain its organizational structure and
productivity following a perturbation (Holling, 1973).
(1) The amount of disturbance that a system can absorb while
still remaining within the same state or domain of attraction;
(2) the degree to which the system is capable of self-
organization (versus lack of organization or organization
forced by external factors); (3) the degree to which the system
can build and increase its capacity for learning and
adaptation (Carpenter et al., 2001).
The ability of a system to reorganize after a disturbance and
remain in the previous basin of attraction. (Müller et al.,
2010).
Landscape resilience Resilience of an entire landscape, viewed as a spatially located
complex adaptive system that includes both social and
ecological components and their interactions (Cumming,
2011).
Robustness Robustness refers to the capacity of a system to maintain the
structure despite perturbations (Gallopín, 2006).
Social-ecological system A linked system of people and nature in which people depend on
nature and nature is influenced by people (Berkes et al., 2003).
Transformability Capacity to create a fundamentally new system when the existing
system is untenable (Walker et al., 2004).
Vulnerability State of susceptibility to harm from exposure to stresses
associated with environmental and social change and from the
absence of capacity to adapt (Adger, 2006).
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2.2.3. Resilience
The concept of ecological resilience was first introduced in 1973 by C.S. Holling as a “measure of
the persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain
the same relationships between populations or state variables” (Holling, 1973). In other words,
resilience is defined as the propensity of a system to retain its organizational structure and
productivity following a perturbation (Holling, 1973). Although the perspective of resilience
emerged from studies on predator-prey interaction and their functional responses in relation to
ecological stability theory, the concept rapidly gained popularity among other natural and social
scientists (Folke, 2006). Furthermore, a profusion of related notions has emerged in the literature
to better understand and improve the definition, understanding and applicability of ecological or
social-ecological resilience (see Table 2).
In the case of agroecosystems productivity, Di Falco and Chavas (2008) define a system as resilient
if, in some state, the system is able to maintain productivity and withstand stress or external shocks.
Thus, a resilient agroecosystem is more capable to provide a vital service, such as food production,
when challenged by a severe drought or by a large reduction in rainfall (Di Falco and Chavas,
2008).
An important characteristic for ecological resilience is the potentially nonlinear responses of a
system to perturbation, including hysteresis and permanent regime shift to an undesirable
alternative state (Fletcher et al., 2006). The notion of resilience includes the concept of attractor
basin or domain of attraction. Within each domain, the system’s state may fluctuate widely (i.e.
may be highly unstable) but if it tends to stay within the boundaries of the domain, the system is
resilient (Gallopín, 2006). Thresholds, tipping points, depths of attractor basins, latitude, resistance
and precariousness are more conceptual components of resilience related to the attractor domain
that have been developed following the definition of resilience but won’t be discussed in this work
because of the inherent difficulty to measure these concepts.
Few studies have gone passed the theoretical level to quantify empirically resilience. One possible
measurement of resilience, or engineering resilience sensu Holling (1996), is to measure the time
needed for the system to recover from a perturbation or return to its domain of attraction after a
disturbance. In other words, resilience can be measured by the speed at which the system returns
to the relatively “stable” point or trajectory following a perturbation, or by the magnitude of the
perturbation that can be absorbed before the state of the system falls outside its domain of attraction
11
(Pimm, 1984). This a posteriori method of measuring resilience, although accurate, can only be
measured once the system has returned to its initial state.
Considering the importance of ecological resilience for the livelihood of communities living from
surrounding ecosystems, several authors have attempted develop other ways of measuring
resilience, either by using surrogates (Bennett et al., 2005), mathematical and spatial models
(Fletcher et al., 2006; Fletcher and Hilbert, 2007; Burkhard et al., 2011a) or lately by developing
multidisciplinary indicators (Van Oudenhoven et al., 2011; Cabell and Oelefse, 2012; Bergamini
et al., 2013).
2.2.4. Adaptive capacity
Similarly to resilience, the concept of adaptive capacity, or adaptability, holds several, and often
divergent, definitions in the scholarship. For instance, Gunderson (2000) defined adaptive capacity
as the ability of the system to remain in a stability domain, as the shape of the domain changes,
Carpenter et al. (2001) use adaptive capacity as a component of resilience that reflects the learning
aspect of system behavior in response to disturbance, and Walker et al. (2004) define adaptability
as the collective capacity of the human actors in a SES to manage resilience, including making
desirable basins of attraction. Sometimes referred to as coping capacity (Turner et al., 2003) or
capacity of response, adaptive capacity will be defined in this study as the system’s ability to adjust
multiple disturbances, moderate potential damage, take advantage of opportunities, and cope with
the consequences of a transformation that occurs (Gallopín, 2006).
Capacity of response may include, for certain authors, the resilience of the system (maintenance
within a basin) but also coping with the impacts produced and taking advantage of opportunities
(Gallopín, 2006). In a social system, adaptability can be seen as the capacity of the system to
increase (or at least maintain) the quality of life or livelihood of its individual members through
the sum of disturbances (Gallopín et al., 1989). Furthermore, adaptive capacity differs from
resilience in that the former entails a reactive and proactive response to perturbation, whereas the
latter is a reactive response (Smithers and Smit, 1997). Adaptive capacity of a social-ecological
system therefore involves two different components; (1) the capacity of the system to cope with
environmental contingencies (the ability to maintain its condition in the face of changes in its
environment) and (2) the capacity to improve its condition in relation to its environment, even if
12
the latter does not change, or to extend the range of environments to which it is adapted (Gallopín,
2006).
An attribute related to adaptability is adaptness, the status of being adapted. Also, an adaptive trait
is a feature of structure, function, or behavior of the organism that is instrumental in securing the
adaptness (Gallopín, 2006). However, high adaptness should not be considered a synonym of high
adaptability. Indeed, if a species may be highly adapted to a special and constant environment, it
may also have little capacity to adapt to others or new changes in its environment (Gallopín, 2006).
For instance, the Ifugaos may show great adaptness for the ability to adapt in such a rugged
mountainous environment, carving the terraces on steep slopes and producing rice in harsh climatic
conditions, but their adaptability might be low to cope with exotic pest species and market
economy. Before becoming adapted of showing adaptness to a particular environment, a system
most undergo a process of adaptation, one by which groups of people add new and improved
methods of coping with the environment to their cultural repertoire (O’Brien and Holland, 1992).
Similar to the concept of adaptability, transformability introduced by Walker and colleagues (2004)
refers to the capacity to create a fundamentally new system (that is, experiment untried beginnings)
when ecological, economic, or social (including political) conditions make the existing system
untenable. It is defined by new state variables, or the old state variables supplemented by new ones.
Attributes required for transformability include novelty, diversity, and organization in human
capital (including diversity of functional types, e.g. kinds of education, expertise, and occupations),
and trust, strengths, and variety in institutions (Walker et al., 2004). An example of
transformability related to the Ifugao rice terraces is to introduce new ways for earning a living,
such as ecotourism. In the literature, adaptive capacity is often evaluated with a focus on climate
change or natural disasters but rarely with other disturbances such as stresses of lower intensity.
For instance, transitioning economies experience much pressures and state variables change
relatively fast.
The Resilience Alliance states that resilience of a system is key to enhance its adaptive capacity
(Resilience Alliance, 2002). However, despite the literature associating resilience to adaptive
capacity, it is unclear whether the two concepts are positively related. Indeed, Burkhard et al.
(2011b) hypothesize that resilience is at its highest when the number of connections remain low
and start decreasing as connections increase, whereas adaptability generally increases with the
13
number of connections within a system. Therefore, resilience and adaptability would not
necessarily be connected as the Resilience Alliance suggests.
If adaptation is generally perceived as benefiting the communities in social-ecological systems,
resilience (Walker et al., 2004; Levin et al., 2012) and vulnerability (Gallopín, 2006) are neither
necessarily good or bad. Communities would prefer to conserve ecosystem services after a
disturbance but also overcome patterns of human behavior that sustain poverty, inequity or reduce
long-run welfare. Resilience can indeed keep communities in an inflexible state of poverty trap, or
under an authoritarian regime. The linkage between resilience and adaptive capacity will be further
examined latter in this study.
2.2.5. Adaptive cycles
The long-term development of a social-ecological system cannot be analyzed with the sole angle
of resilience, but must also consider multiple stable states in a long-term perspective. To this end,
the dynamics of social-ecological systems can be usefully described and analyzed in terms of a
cycle, known as an adaptive (renewal) cycle (Gallopín, 2006), wherein the system experiences
four phases (see Figure 1). During their development, systems go through periods of exponential
change (the exploitation, R phase), periods of growing stasis and rigidity (the conservation, K
phase), periods of readjustments and collapse (the release, Ω phase) and periods of re-organization
and renewal (the α phase, Folke, 2006). Finally, adaptive cycles that interact across multiple
Figure 1 Adaptive cycles and panarchy. On the left, a developing system goes through the adaptive cycle, including
the four phases of exploitation, conservation, release and re-organization. On the right, adaptive cycles constitute a
panarchy as they occur at multiple temporal as well as spatial scales and are adaptive to a general orientor dynamics
(Burkhard et al., 2011b).
14
temporal and spatial scales are named panarchies (Gunderson and Holling, 2002; Folke, 2006).
Keeping in mind these concepts, this studies aims at identifying the location of the system on the
cycle. In other words, the results should be able to show at which phase of the cycle the rice terraces
in Ifugao currently are.
2.3. Indicators of social-ecological state
Indicators can be defined as a component or a measure that depicts a complex environmental
phenomenon in a simple and useful manner (Kurtz et al., 2001; Müller and Burkhard, 2012). They
are often used to assess the condition of the environment or to provide an early warning signal of
changes in the environment (Dale and Beyeler, 2001).
Figure 2 Adaptive management cycle of the Ifugao social-ecological system. The eight indicators used in this study,
in red, represent different stages of the DPSIR Framework. Six of the indicators assess the dynamics of the ecosystem
services cascade, while one indicator represents drivers and another one depicts pressures (adapted from Haines-
Young and Potschin, 2010; Müller and Burkhard, 2012).
Distu
rban
ces
Drivers Urban migration
Increasing food demand
Increasing tourism
Pressure Climate change
Land abandonment
Invasive alien species
Response Conservation
Ecotourism
development
Biophysical
structures and
processes Landscape
heterogeneity
Biotic diversity
Carbon flows
Energy flows
Water flows
Matter flows
Ecosystem
functions Water
retention
Water
purification
Nutrient
retention
Exergy
capture
Entropy
production
Value Profitability
Indirect use
value
Option
value
Bequest
value
Existence
value
Religious
value
Human
benefits Food
sovereignty
Food
security
Nutrition
diversity
Health
Household
income
Employment
Wellbeing
Ecosystem services
Rice & vegetable crops
Fish and seafood
Drinking water
Water flow regulation
Erosion regulation
Aesthetics
Recreational
opportunities
Tourism
Cultural heritage
Natural heritage
Traditional ecological
knowledge
Multiple uses of land
and plants
Adaptive management cycle
Ecological Resilience
Ecosystem and biodiversity
Impact State
Human well-being
Social-Ecological Adaptability
Disturbance
regime
Demographics
15
Several indicators have been used to describe ecosystem integrity, ecosystem health and ecosystem
services. However, assessment exclusively relying on ecological indicators (e.g. species richness,
primary production, nutrient and water recycling, soil productivity) fail to capture the social
dimensions of a social systems linked to ecosystems and only rarely provide historical depth. In
order to assess the adaptive management cycle of the ecosystems’ change and communities’
responses to adapt to these changes, indicators must represent the different stages of the cycle (see
Figure 2). In this regard, landscape heterogeneity and biotic diversity represent the ecosystems
structure. Multiple uses of land and plants refer to the number of goods provided to humans by
ecosystems functions. Traditional ecological knowledge and practices are seen as services, mostly
cultural, derived from ecosystems, but are also part of the response that may mitigate the drivers
of change. Food sovereignty is the benefit of food provisioning services, and profitability shows
the monetary value than can be derived from the ecosystem services cascade. Demographics is an
indicator that can measure the drivers of change related to population dynamics, whereas
disturbance regime partly indicates the intensity of pressure on the state of structures and processes
of ecosystems.
Of course, many more indicators should be used to measure exhaustively and accurately the state
of the social-ecological system of Ifugao. Systems are complex and should be evaluated with as
many parameters as possible. Comprehensive vulnerability and resilience analysis considering the
totality of the system, however ideal, is unrealistic (Turner et al., 2003). Due to the remote location
of the case study and the limited time for the research, indicators were chosen by their applicability
and the possibility of deriving them from questionnaire results. For instance, the yield of rice (e.g.
measured in kg or bundles) was not taken in this study as an indicator despite its relevance. Rice
terraces in Ifugao typically circumvent the steep mountain slopes and as a result, their area and
contour are highly variable in shape and size. For this reason, most farmers ignore the area of their
fields. They also do not always know the exact amount of harvested bundles every year since
bundles are often exchanged for labor and to pay off debts. Furthermore, the bundles are of
different sizes in each communities, which makes the comparison inconvenient.
16
2.3.1. Food sovereignty
The need to import food, pesticides or funding for terraces maintenance is a sign that the system
relies on inputs from the outside. This need for the maintenance of the system increases
vulnerability, among other things to price fluctuation, and can lead to a change of state or a
breakdown if flexibility within the system become too low. Families in Banaue could never be
self-sufficient with their own rice crops. However, with other crops such as sweet potatoes,
communities did not rely on trade with the rest of Philippines to get enough food for a year. As the
production of rice becomes insufficient to feed larger families, imported rice from other regions,
as well as from other Southeast Asian countries started to appear in the stores of Banaue. The
availability of rice from outside Banaue may create a stronger dependence on imports, but may
also help to overcome crop failure provoked by pests or natural disaster. Hence food sovereignty
is an indicator that is strongly related to demographics on the one hand, and to disturbances on the
other hand.
2.3.2. Profitability
In order to pursue rice farming, those who manage the agroecosystems must have their needs met.
Local communities should be able to make a living from work directly related to their labor, if
they want to, without depending too much on off-farm income or subsidies (Cabell and Oelofse,
2012). Different benefits result from ecosystem services of agricultural systems, such as religious
or spiritual experience and improved health, and different types of valuations can be used to assess
these services (Davidson, 2013). But without economic benefits, maintaining the system becomes
too demanding in resources and time, especially when compared to other more attractive lowland
job opportunities. This is especially an issue in Ifugao where the rice terracing activity has never
been profitable because of the low yields rendered by the local rice variety (Barton, 1919) and
where the climate does not allow the introduction of more productive rice varieties. Therefore, a
profitable Ifugao system would be a proof that the system is able to adapt to the new conditions,
e.g. market economy, whereas a system where farmers do not sell farm products would be a
resilient system. This refers to the “negative” resilience that keeps a system in a poverty trap, in
which a systems may, as Young (2010) states, “linger on relatively unchanged even after they have
become ineffective”.
17
2.3.3. Traditional ecological knowledge
Traditional agricultural knowledge and practices are part of the self-organization of the
agroecosystem and contribute to the structure and function of the landscape. The resilience of this
system, depends as much on these practices (the links between human and ecological components),
as it does on ecological characteristics (biodiversity, habitat, ecosystem services) and social ones
(institutions, networks, education; Van Oudenhoven et al., 2011). Traditional knowledge icludes
local languages that encode the co-evolution of rural communities and ecosystems or oral
traditions of knowledge transmission, for instance the hudhud chant in Ifugao (Lambrecht, 1967;
Stanyukovich, 2003). This legacy of culture and traditions, from one generation to another, may
also come in the form of seed banks or heirloom varieties and other biophysical resources that are
inherited from forefathers (Cabell and Oelefse, 2012). A loss of such knowledge, for example
caused by the extinction a local language, can cause the disintegration of traditional social-
ecological systems, landscape degradation and loss of biodiversity, further eroding traditional
knowledge in the process (Van Oudenhoven et al., 2011). Retention of indigenous knowledge is
dependent on its use; it is not only embedded in people’s minds, but it is also reflected in the
environment with which they engage (Kassam, 2009). In other words, to conserve resilient social
structures, knowledge must also be transferred to next generations. The continuity of the system
depends on whether or not the next generation is willing to take over the farming activities of the
forefathers.
2.3.4. Demographics
Population is rarely taken into account as a variable to measure the resilience of social-ecological
systems. However, all aspects of demographic change, including migration, influence the social
resilience of communities and the sustainability of the underlying resource base (Adger et al.,
2002). A high density of population and high birth rate tends to increase the poverty trap issue
(Verner, 2007). Higher population can also increase pressures on the system causing landscape
fragmentation, soil erosion, pollution and may reduce arable land per capita (Blaikie and
Brookfield, 1987; Grepperud, 1996).
Conversely, emigration or urban migration and lack of workers to maintain the rice terraces can
lead to a shift of the system, resulting in terrace abandonment and the development of a different
landscape. Migration, especially overseas, and remittances can also improve the livelihood of the
18
communities. The money sent home from the migrant workers can be used for investments, for
instance in the agricultural sector (McKay, 2003). Therefore, migration rate can enhance resilience
by offsetting high birth rate and adaptability by improving the livelihood at the household level
(Adger, 2000).
2.3.5. Landscape heterogeneity
Spatial heterogeneity can be defined as the complexity and variability of a system property in space,
such as patch mosaics, plant biomass, or soil nutrients (Li and Reynolds, 1996). As it buffers
disturbances across the landscape, spatial heterogeneity is generally regarded as enhancing
ecological resilience (Cabell and Oelefse, 2012; Turner et al., 2013). However, the correlation
between spatial heterogeneity and disturbance in terrestrial ecosystems has still not yet been
entirely demonstrated as positive. Heterogeneity has mainly been shown as reducing
disturbances such as forest fires (Turner and Braton, 1987; Harrison et al., 2003) but it might not
be the case concerning other disturbances such as exotic pest outbreaks, which may be increased
by landscape patchiness (Nair, 2001). Furthermore, there are few studies on the relationship
between landscape heterogeneity and the vulnerability to climate hazards such as floods and landslides.
Rice terraces in Banaue are very different from lowland rice paddies. The landscape is much more
heterogeneous as forests are historically an essential part of the landscape. Rice fields are also
more temporally heterogeneous than in the lowland. As opposed to intensive culture in other
provinces, rice fields in Ifugao often have only one rice crop per year. After harvest, rice fields are
transformed in vegetable fields or in a wetland that increases the diversity of structure in the
landscape. Moreover, shifting cultivation represents further temporal heterogeneity on a different
scale, as forest plots are temporarily replaced by root crops.
Fragmentation of the landscape through urban sprawl may increase the impact of disturbances on
the landscape. For instance, roads and sealed surfaces tend to redirect the water flow along a certain
pathway, thus increasing peak flow and erosion, as well as decreasing the time lapse of base flow
after a precipitation event. This is an important hydrological factor since rice terraces need a
continuous inflow of water and too much water at a time increases the probability of collapsed
terraced walls. Increasing tourism and population have been major drivers in the building of new
infrastructures such as paved roads, hotels and shops mostly in the surrounding of the town of
Banaue.
19
2.3.6. Biotic diversity
The capacity of ecosystems with higher biodiversity to overcome disturbances has been
demonstrated in several studies. Higher biodiversity enhances the following properties:
1. Growing more diverse crop species increases the probability of growing the best-adapted
species. This is known as the "sampling effect" (Di Falco and Chavas, 2008).
2. Complementarity effect stresses the role of niche partitioning and facilitation (Loreau and
Hector, 2001). Broader range of traits will be more likely to perform under different
environmental conditions (Sala, 2001).
Having a diversity of plants with similar functions, but with different responses to weather and
temperature variance contributes to resilience (Holling, 1973) and ensures that "whatever the
environmental conditions, there will be plants of given functional types that thrive under those
conditions" (Heal, 2000). Biodiversity is buffering against the negative effects of adverse
environmental conditions at least in the longer term, and it can help to keep the agroecosystem at
a level of productivity that is similar to the one obtained without the shock (Di Falco and Chavas,
2008) The local rice varieties are adapted to climatic peculiarities of the region which determine
the communities of plants and animals in the paddies. Plant diversity in the rice fields also
improves the response to disturbances such as invasive pest species, e.g. the golden apple snail
(Martin and Sauerborn, 2000). The province of Ifugao is known for its high number of different
varieties of Japonica (tinawon) and Indica (pinidua) varieties. However, the number seems to be
decreasing, notably given the introduction of lowland high yielding varieties.
2.3.7. Multiple uses of land and plants
Intercropping and agroforestry are agricultural techniques that boost multiple crops for the same
area of land. These multi-species cropping systems offer several benefits, such as consistency in
food provisioning and increased capacity to recover from perturbation (Trenbath, 1999). Inversely,
the intensification and simplification of agrological systems often lead to a higher reliance on
external agricultural inputs and products to compensate for the lower agricultural diversity (Altieri,
1999). Therefore, deriving different goods from ecosystems generally increases resilience because
the system is less dependent on imports to obtain, for instance, daily nutritional needs (Morimoto
20
et al., 2010). Productive multifunctional ecosystems have a positive influence on other indicators,
such as food sovereignty and landscape heterogeneity.
The notion of multiple uses of land may refer to the ecosystem services concept. However, only
tangible ecosystem goods will be taken into account here to assess the multiple uses of the
ecosystems. The reason to exclude intangible ecosystem services is that little information exist and
more data are needed especially for regulation services, which makes measurement difficult, and
temporal comparison with a traditional “stable” state is arduous. However, some cultural
ecosystem services are taken into account under a different indicator, i.e. religious experience and
knowledge system in the traditional ecological knowledge indicator.
2.3.8. Disturbance regime
As previously mentioned, disturbances are strongly related to the resilience of a system. Resilience
being the response of a system to disturbance, one could think that disturbances are necessarily
detrimental to social-ecological systems. However it has been argued that controlled and limited
disturbances can improve some aspects of ecological functioning (Glitzenstein et al., 1995; Platt,
1999), e.g. biodiversity (Connell, 1978; Svensson et al., 2007). On the other hand, this dynamics
of disturbance strengthening resilience depends heavily on the capacity of the system to absorb
stress, its flexibility, vulnerability and adaptability. Further, disturbances may not be positively
regarded in subsistence agroecosystems since food provisioning is severely needed and variations
in harvests may have great consequences, regardless of the long-term beneficial effects.
21
3. Methods
The following section explains the context in which this thesis was conducted and describes the
area of study, referring to the earliest (early 20th century) accounts of the social-ecological system.
It also reviews the current pressures that have influenced the recent development of the system.
The last part of this chapter outlines the methodology used for the collection and analysis of data.
3.1. The Legato Project
The study was carried out within the LEGATO project, which “aims to advance long-term
sustainable development of irrigated rice fields, against risks arising from multiple aspects of
global change”1. The project, which gathers different partner institutions in Germany, Vietnam,
the Philippines and few other European countries, focuses on the activity of rice production in
seven study sites across Vietnam and the Philippines. This thesis concentrates on one of the three
sites in the Philippines, i.e. Banaue in the province of Ifugao, and falls within the work package
4.2 regarding the development of indicators. According to the Description of Work (LEGATO,
2011), the main objectives of this work package will be to:
1) Identify suitable (feasible and effective) sets of indicators characterizing the state of the
environment and related socio-economic and cultural factors on different scales and in
different bio-geographic regions;
2) Quantify the indicators as far as appropriate based on results generated by the whole
consortium;
3) Play an integrating role within LEGATO by providing an integrative interdisciplinary
indicator framework system which will be used by the project collaborators and which can
be transferred into practice after the project works.
Furthermore, a secondary objective of the work package 4.2 is to derive measures for resilience
and adaptability (LEGATO, 2011).
1 The LEGATO acronym stands for “Land-use intensity and Ecological Engineering – Assessment Tools for risks
and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems”. URL: http://www.legato-project.net/.
22
3.2. Description of the study area
The Ifugao rice terraces are located on the northern part of the island of Luzon, in the Philippines
(Figure 3). The production of rice in Ifugao is negligible. On the 16.6 million metric tonnes of rice
produced in the whole country in 2011, only 62 thousand tonnes (0.3%) came from Ifugao (Bureau
of Agricultural Statistics, 2013).
It is still unclear to date when did the Ifugao people really start with the construction of the terraces
in North Luzon. Barton (1919) and Beyer (1955) first estimated the terraces to be of at least 2000
years old (Table 3). Other scholars later proposed a much more recent origin, of a few centuries,
pretending that the Ifugaos were forced to migrate up the mountains by the arrivals of the Spaniards.
Author Date Evidence
Barton (1919) & Beyer (1955) 2000-3000 YBP Estimated how long it would have taken to
construct the elaborate terrace systems which
fill valley after valley of Ifugao country.
Keesing (1962) & Dozier (1966) < 300 YBP Movements to upper elevation of Cordillera
peoples were associated with the Spanish
pressure.
Lambrecht (1967) < 300 YBP Used lexical and linguistic evidence by
analysing Ifugao romantic tales (hudhud);
observed short duration of terrace building
and concluded a recent origin of the terraces.
Maher (1973) 205 ± 100 YBP
735 ± 105 YBP
Radiocarbon dates from a pond field and
midden.
Acabado (2009) < 500 YBP Radiocarbon dates of charcoal sample from a
pond field in Banaue and Bayesian modelling.
Figure 3 Location of the Ifugao province (middle) and its municipalities (right) in the Philippines (left). Source:
http://www.philgis.org/.
Manila
Ifugao
Table 3 Age estimations proposed for the creation of the Ifugao rice terraces (adapted from Acabado, 2009).
23
Table 4 Timeline of major events in Banaue.
But regardless of the exact date, the uniqueness of the Ifugao rice terraces no longer has to be
proven. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995 (UNESCO, 1996), the rice terraces also
became a site of the GIAHS selected by the FAO since 2002 (Koohafkan and Jane, 2011). Several
other national Initiatives have been implemented to promote the restoration and Conservation of
the Ifugao Rice Terraces (Table 4), although success has limited. Because of the extent of the
terraces, estimated at 20,000 km in length, they are believed to be the most extensive terraces in
the world and are a major landmark in the country, described as an “irreplaceable treasure”
Year Event
~0-1600 Start of the construction of the terraces (Acabado, 2009)
1868 Discovery of the valley of Banaue (Scott, 1974)
1899-1946 US colonization and catholic and protestant missionary activities (Conklin, 1980)
1946 Incorporation of Ifugao in the Philippine nation-state (Conklin, 1980)
1950-1980 Possible period of introduction of giant earthworm (Conklin, 1980)
1986-1990 Introduction of the golden apple snail (Joshi et al., 2001)
1990 Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 (Kwiatkowski, 2013)
1994 Creation of Ifugao Terraces Commission (ITC) for the restoration and preservation of
the Ifugao Rice Terraces (1994-1999) (DENR, 2008)
1995 Inclusion of the Ifugao Rice Terraces as UNESCO-WHS (UNESCO, 1995)
1999 Creation of Banaue Rice Terraces Task Force (BRTTF) 1999-2002 (DENR, 2008)
2001 Inclusion of UNESCO-WHS on the Danger List (UNESCO, 2002)
2002 Creation of Ifugao Rice Terraces and Cultural Heritage Office (IRTCHO) 2002-2006
(DENR, 2008)
2006 Creation of Ifugao Cultural Heritage Office (DENR, 2008)
2006 Inclusion of Ifugao Rice Terraces (IRT) in the GIAHS initiatives (Koohafkan and Jane,
2011)
2010 El Niño causing extended drought and major crop loss (Yumul Jr et al., 2010)
2012 Removal of UNESCO-WHS on the Danger List (UNESCO, 2012)
24
(Nozawa et al., 2008). The terraces are also widely considered as the eighth wonder of the world
by Filipinos (Joshi et al., 2000; Araral, 2009; Dizon et al., 2012).
The Ifugao rice terraces are also characterized by a lack of information because of the remoteness
and isolation of the province. Indeed little is documented on the area: rice productivity per hectare
is only estimated at the municipality level, as is the total number of rice and other plant varieties.
Difficulty to compile data also comes from the fact that the same information may be found under
different names depending on the dialects in the different municipalities of Ifugao. This is
especially the case for rice varieties, which can be bred locally and hold local names.
The climate in Ifugao is relatively cool and wet throughout the year, with an annual average rainfall
of 3500 mm (Figure 4). Monsoon winds bring clouds covering the forested mountain peaks
resulting in intermittent drizzles or heavy rainfall (Roxas, 1996). These climatic conditions provide
a dependable source of water, but also causes recurrent landslides (Gonzalez, 2000).
Due to flooding in the terraces, Banaue soil is deficient in zinc, which can become a limiting factor
for rice growth (Roxas, 1996). The concentration of zinc increases again when the fields are
drained or during short periods of drought and becomes available for use as traditional rice
varieties recover. Soil acidity is relatively high (pH ranging from 4.8 to 6.8) and deficient in N, P,
K and S (Sigari et al., 2003).
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pre
cip
itat
ion
(m
m)
Tem
per
atu
re (
°C)
Precipitation Average high temp Average low temp
Figure 4 Climate chart of the Ifugao Province. Source: World Weather Online, 2014.
25
3.2.1. Agroforestry
Typically, farmers who own a rice paddy also own a forested area that is more or less managed,
called Pinugo or Muyung in the local dialects. This forest or woodlot, usually enclosing or adjacent
to the settlements, is private and can only be used by others after permission.
The woodlots measure in general around 0.5-3 hectares and they are separated by a demarcation
of around one meter wide (Gomez, 2003). Besides providing the inhabitants with firewood, fruits,
lumber and medicinal plants, the woodlots have a great importance in terms of regulating
ecosystem services. As they are typically located above rice fields, the woodlots are a source of
nutrients from decomposed litter (Magcale-Macandog et al., 2013). They also contribute to water
regulation and provide uninterrupted presence of water in the fields, thus preventing the layers of
clay beneath the topsoil and behind the stone walls from cracking and eroding (Villalon, 1995).
Hence most farmers depend on forests for the irrigation of their rice ponds (Gomez, 2003).
3.2.2. Swidden cultivation
The Ifugao people is also known for its shifting cultivation, namely the habar or uma in local
dialects (sometimes seen as kaigin in Tagalog). Swidden fields have a size ranging from 0.3 to 1.5
hectares and normally remain fallow for 7-8 years before the next cultivation (Gomez, 2003). The
swiddens are used to plant tubers, more importantly sweet potatoes (Ipomea batatas), with yields
averaging 2.4 tonnes per hectare per year (Guy, 1995). Since one rice crop in a year is generally
insufficient to feed families for the whole year, sweet potatoes are the second, and sometimes the
most important staple food for Ifugao households (Barton, 1922; Brosius, 1988). The swidden
fields are cultivated on slopes too steep for terrace farming, and therefore maximize food
production on the available area of land.
3.2.3. Rice terracing
Most families own at least one rice field, called payo, of a size of 0.33-0.5 hectares (Gomez, 2003).
The stairway-like configuration of the rice terraces entails that nutrients and water overflow in the
top terraces will be recycled at each lower terraces. Another particularity of the rice terraces is the
anaerobic conditions in the soil, protecting organic nitrogen from denitrification and leaching
(Margraf and Voggesberger, 1984). Further, considerable biological nitrogen fixation in the rice
26
paddies comes from the Azolla-Anabaena symbiosis, which is more effective in climatological
conditions of higher altitudes (Roger et al., 1986). Weeds growing on bunds and rice straws are
directly inserted into the soil after harvest, providing additional nutrients for the following
cropping season. This green manure is important considering the fact that Ifugaos have not widely
adopted the use of inorganic fertilizers.
Though rice science has shown that alternate flooding in rice fields is preferable to reduce
greenhouse gas emission and enhance water use efficiency (Sass et al., 1992; Bouman et al., 2007),
the terraces of Ifugao must be flooded as often as possible to prevent erosion and landslides. The
steep slopes make terraces vulnerable to erosion and the lack of water is likely to create cracks that
eventually cause walls and dikes to collapse (Roxas, 1996; Nozawa et al., 2008).
The farmers have developed traditional agroecological practices to improve the food production
and secure food security. A widespread intercropping practice across the province is the pingkol
(inago in Banaue and Bangan, pen’er in Batad), consisting of small mounds of composting rice
straw, Azolla ferns and grasses covered with mud on the rice paddies on which farmers plant
vegetables, while water level in the rice pond is maintained. Pingkol are mostly a post-harvest
system but can also been seen occasionally while rice is growing. Vegetables growing on these
mounds of decaying organic matter are mainly Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa), locally known
as pechay, and onions (Allium cepa). Pingkol have the double function of providing food while
paddies are idle and, as mentioned above, providing nutrients for the next cropping season
(Nozawa et al., 2008). Other crops are planted on terrace dikes, bunds and walls, including grain,
legumes and root crops such as sweet potatoes, taro and ginger (Wackernagel, 1985).
3.2.4. Ifugao rice
The main local rice varieties, of the Japonica category, are gathered under the generic word of
tinawon, meaning “yearly” in the local dialect (Conklin, 1980). Tinawon is characteristic for its
slow growth (6-9 months) reaching a height of 120-160 cm and can only be planted once a year
(Roxas, 1996). Despite the low yield, the tinawon varieties present a number of advantages to
farmers. They are non-shattering, have long panicles and are taller than most varieties, which are
qualities appreciated for manual harvest. They also have large grain and the texture is preferred by
the Ifugaos to the modern varieties. They are cold-tolerant and therefore produce more rice than
lowland varieties (Indica) at elevations higher than 1000 meters above sea level (Wackernagel,
27
1985). Beside the tinawon, varieties of the Indica category were adapted to upland production and
were called pinidua in the region, meaning “second” (Conklin, 1980). These varieties can be grown
as a second crop after the tinawon and outyield traditional Japonica varieties at elevation lower
than 1000 meters above sea level (Wackernagel, 1985). Nonetheless, tinawons traditionally made
up for a large part of the production considering that roughly 80% of the varieties and 95% of the
quantities of rice grown in the Ifugao terraces are tinawon varieties (Conklin, 1980), although this
situation is starting to change.
Native varieties yield in average 2 tonnes per hectare per year, although exceptionally fertile fields
may reach 6 tonnes per hectare per year (Conkin, 1980). Introduced high yielding varieties such
as C4 may be slightly more productive, averaging 2.4 tonnes per hectare per year (Guy, 1995).
However, these high yielding varieties, as well as double-cropping systems, can only be introduced
at lower elevations. There has been many attempts to breed new cold-tolerant rice varieties through
hybridization initiated as early as 1974 by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Philippines (Roxas,
1996). However, owing to cultural practices, some grain quality traits and climate variability, such
initiatives have remained until now unsuccessful around Banaue (Roxas, 1996).
It is also common for farmers to grow glutinous rice varieties. The latter are used to prepare
delicacies and rice wine served during special occasions or in daily needs of the Ifugaos
(Evangelista, 2005). There is no official count of the rice varieties in the province. Settele (1998)
estimated the number of varieties at more than 100. Evangelista (2005) numbered 107 non-
glutinous traditional, 42 glutinous traditional and 21 modern varieties for a total of 170 planted
during the 2002 cropping season. Also, rice paddies in Banaue are known for the high biodiversity.
Settele (2003) showed that the rice ponds in Banaue have an above-average diversity of aquatic
species (more than 100 species) compared to other wetland ecosystems in the worlds.
3.2.5. Other landscape components
Besides rice terraces, private forests and swidden fields, Conklin (1967a) identified the following
land uses as part of the typical Ifugao landscape:
- Caneland or cane grassland: mostly slopeland, unworked soil, covered with various stages
of second growth herbaceous and ligneous vegetation dominated by dense clumps of tall
canegrass (dominated by bilāu in Ifugao, Miscanthus spp.); some protection and
management (canegrass much used for construction, fencing, and so forth).
28
- Grassland: ridge and slopeland, untilled, covered with herbaceous grasses (gūlun in Ifugao,
Imperata sp., Themeda sp., and others), public and unmanaged; open, unbounded,
minimally valued; a source of outer roof thatch. Without new sources of irrigation water
such land is not normally brought under cultivation.
- Public forest: slopeland, undisturbed soil, covered with various types of dense woody
vegetation (from lower altitude mid-mountain climax forest to pine forest and mossy cloud
forest types), public (for residents in the same general watershed area), and unmanaged; a
source of firewood, other natural forest products, and game.
- House terrace (settlement, hamlet terrace, residential site): leveled terrace land, the surface
of which is packed smooth or paved but not tilled; serving primarily as house and granary
yards, work space for grain drying, and so forth; discrete, often fenced or walled, and
named.
- Drained field (drained terrace, ridged terrace): leveled terrace land, the surface of which is
tilled and ditch mounded (usually in cross-contour fashion) for cultivation and drainage of
dry crops, such as sweet potatoes and legumes. Drained fields, though privately owned, are
kept in this temporary state for only a minimum number of annual cycles before shifting
(back) to a more permanent form of terrace use.
These land covers, especially the public forests, although very relevant in the study of social-
ecological systems, will not be considered in this thesis because of their small proportion of land
cover in the studied areas.
The traditional Ifugao land use system has often been described as having high connections
between the different ecosystems forming the landscape, allowing production and consumption of
food in the same landscape units (Settele, 1998). For instance, the farmers, who generally live in
a hamlet concentrated on lower terraces, get most of the biomass needed, in the form of rice,
seafood, fruits, lumber and firewood, from the surrounding ecosystems (Figure 5). Therefore, a
flow of biomass connects the ecosystems to the hamlet. A cascading flow of water-carried nutrient
is observed from higher primary forests, to private woodlots and swidden fields to rice terraces,
and also from hamlets to lower rice terraces. For this reason, nutrient cycles are considered as
nearly closed with optimal recycling of nutrients (Margraf and Voggesberger, 1984; Settele, 2003).
29
3.2.6. Societal features
The rice farming system in Ifugao is one of subsistence and much time and resources must be
invested in this activity. As the region is isolated from major cities in Luzon, few employment
opportunities offer cash income for farmers or other workers. It is therefore difficult to assess the
well-being of the population merely with standard development indicators such as monetary
income.
The communities living from rice farming in Ifugao have developed closely with their environment.
The rice plant more specifically, strongly influenced the generation of religious beliefs of the
communities. For example, the Bulol, a wood carving representing the rice god is believed to be a
protector of harvested rice crops (Bulilan, 2007). It is also believed that the first Ifugao settlers
Figure 5 The Ifugao land use system. Rice fields receive water-carried nutrients from ecosystems located above .
Harvested products are transferred to the hamlet (biomass flux) . The terrace shape of the rice paddies allows
for the optimal use of nutrients and minimal erosion despite the steep slope (Modified from Margraf and
Voggesberger, 1984; picture taken in Batad, 2013).
30
were given the first plant of tinawon by the gods (Druguet, 2012). Baki or rituals associated with
rice production (Bulilan, 2007) are practiced at different stages of the agricultural production cycle.
The people of Ifugao have developed specific customary laws and practices. One of these practices
is the ubbu, a type of exchange farm labor provided by group work among neighbors (Conklin,
1980; Araral, 2013). A similar practice is baddang which helps in constructing and repairing the
terraces walls and irrigation canals (Conklin, 1980). These customs contribute the social
organization of the communities and to the proper maintenance of the system through cooperation
without paid labor.
Another traditional custom is the primogeniture rights, which entails the inheritance by the oldest
child of the entire or a substantial part of the property of his parents, while younger siblings need
to acquire their own property, become tenants or seek different employment (Barton, 1919). The
land owned by a family is seen as an article of value that has been handed down from generation
to generation, not as the property of any individual. Therefore, property will be seldom sold or
divided. In case the owner leaves the area, the rice fields will be rented to tenants who did not
inherit rice fields in their own family. This inheritance system also has a great impact on the social-
ecological system as it regulates the property sizes and prevents the division of the fields. The
adverse effect of this measure is of course to create imbalance in wealth and inequities within
families (Cagat, 2013).
The marketing of rice has never been common in the area (Barton, 1922; Acabado, 2012). In some
cases, farmers practice a barter system wherein rice is the medium of exchange to acquire other
goods or commodities such as fruits, meat or seeds (Evangelista, 2005). Farmers in Ifugao typically
produce their own seeds through seed or panicle selection. This selection is done before harvest
by women, who are aided by elders considered as expert seed selectors. The seed selection
knowledge is passed on through generations.
Rituals are a big part of the culture of the Ifugaos (Figure 6). With 17 agricultural rites known to
be linked with rice production and consumption, although 8-10 are more frequently practiced
throughout the province (Conklin, 1980). One of the consequences of rituals is that all members
of a community plant and transplant their seedlings, and harvest the rice at the same time, resulting
in the synchronization of crops. This timeliness has the benefits of lessening the length of time
when the crop is attractive to pests and diluting the damage for each field by spreading it over a
large area (Wackernagel, 1985).
31
As most traditional social-ecological systems in the world, the Ifugao rice terraces are changing
rapidly. Changes associated with development are not new however. Already in the early 20th
century, Barton (1922) noticed that the genuine traditional system had already vanished. For
instance, the American government had already introduced remunerative employment, replacing
the feudal system and rice by money for the main currency (Barton, 1922). Seasonal migration for
work had also started at that time. As roads were developed in North Luzon to facilitate mining
activities, men were already moving to neighboring provinces to find paid labor, returning home
for harvest and planting seasons. Some formerly frequent traditional practices, for instance head-
hunting and the selling of children to pay off debts, had also stopped.
Figure 6 Cropping seasons and related rituals (SITMo, 2008).
32
Drastic changes in the system have been noted starting in the early 1980’s (Eder, 1982; Settele et
al., 1998). More specifically, changes of the climate and the hydrological balance were observed
(Eder, 1982; Sawey et al., 2010). The lack of water in the terraces caused the accelerated erosion
and collapse of the stone walls and more frequent landslides. The World Heritage Site was placed
on the list of sites in danger from 2001 to 2012, mostly on the basis of the abandonment of terraces,
unaddressed needs of tourism and irregular development (UNESCO, 2002, 2012). Signs of a
decline of interest in traditional culture have also started to appear. For instance, rituals are
becoming infrequent and the introduction of high yielding varieties may disturb the traditional
knowledge of seed selection since modern seeds are provided by government or non-governmental
organizations (Evangelista, 2005).
3.2.7. Pressures on the system
Several pressures on the Ifugao rice terraces system have been documented since the early 1980’s.
Pest species, which cause continuous disturbances increasing in intensity, are one of them. It may
have combined effects with the El Niño phenomenon, for instance when terraces dry out due to
the lack of rain and water seepage caused by earthworms (Eder, 1982). Although some species of
earthworms are known to have beneficial effects on soil aggregation, residue decomposition,
nutrient mineralization, water infiltration (Lee, 1985), soil aeration in flooded paddies (Owa et al.,
2003), as well as productivity in tropical agroecosystems (Pashanasi et al., 1996), the species found
in Ifugao have rapidly become a major pest. In a survey conducted by Joshi and colleagues (1999),
93 out of 103 rice farmers in the municipality of Banaue identified earthworms as the most
important pest species in their terraces. Besides causing undesirable seepage of water and drainage
of the fields, they can also damage young rice plants by friction, scraping root tissues of seedlings
when the population becomes too dense, and interfere with germination by covering seeds or
seedlings in the seedbed (Barrion and Litsinger, 1997). The lack of response to this threat comes
from the little information available on the cryptogenic worm. Indeed, Conklin (1980) first
mentioned that the locally called kolang or “giant earthworm” would be the Pheretima elongata
(Gates) that could have spread from the regions south of the North Central Ifugao during the three
decades preceding his publication. More recently, Joshi et al. (1999) mentioned two different
species that could be the problematic earthworm, Polypheretima elongata (Perrier) or a “large
mystery worm” of the Pheretima or Metaphire genera, yet unidentified. It is unclear when the
33
“giant earthworm”, became a pest in Banaue. Joshi et al. (1999) and Gomez (2003) suggest that
the earthworms became a problem in the early 1980’s, but according to Gates (1972) and Conklin
(1980), it would have already been present in the early 1960’s. Therefore, it is still unknown from
where and when the problematic earthworm first arrived in Banaue, and research is still needed to
establish a program of ecosystem-based management to reduce the negative impacts of the worm
without applying ecologically harmful pesticides.
Another important invasive species is the golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata), locally
known as golden kuhol. It was introduced in the Philippines from South America and Taiwan
between 1982 and 1984 as a source of protein in human diet (Mochida, 1987; Joshi et al., 2001).
First seen in Ifugao in 1990, the apple snail spread rapidly, becoming a pest globally for rice
production, as attests its inclusion in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s
(IUCN) list of top 100 worst invasive species globally (IUCN, 2013). Damages from the snail are
poorly quantified in Ifugao compared to other areas of Philippines. For instance, yield loss caused
by P. canaliculata of around 40% have been reported in 1990 in Luzon rice fields, and nearly half
the farmers in the neighboring province of Nueva Ecija had a 25% harvest reduction in 1990-1991
(Martin and Sauerborn, 2000). The snail does not only reduce the rice production. It possibly led
to the extirpation of the native snail species (Pila luzonica) which was traditionally appreciated as
a food source by the inhabitants, without damaging the rice plants.
Tourism and the opening of the area to market economy considerably altered mentalities and
traditions, especially around the town of Banaue. The increasing number of tourists in the region
can be seen as detrimental for forested areas because of the increasing demand for lumber from
the wood carving industry. An overexploitation of forests would certainly result in lower water
regulation from the forested zone above rice fields and thus, drier terraces. Tourism could also
lead to water diversion for the industry’s purposes. Apart from tourism, several other changes
occur in a traditional social-ecological system once a community opens up to the rest of the country.
One of the first consequences of greater relations with the rest of the Philippines, was the
introduction of Christianism that can potentially produce a “cultural disturbance”.
Another example of such change is the controversial introduction of high yielding varieties of rice.
The Ifugao people take a great pride in growing the native variety. On the other hand, many
observers have been suggesting the introduction of more productive varieties as being the only
solution for the continuity of the rice terraces. This represents a typical trade-off in ecosystem
34
services and benefits, as farmers must choose between the protection of biological and genetic
diversity in their field, which has, for centuries, influenced their cultural heritage, and a higher
crop production, needed in most families of the region.
All these disturbances tend to move the social-ecological system of Banaue away from its
“traditional” domain of attraction, as described between the first ethnological accounts and 1980’s
start of drastic changes. Among consequences of the pressures are biodiversity loss, and damage
or abandonment of rice terraces. However, there are still important gaps in knowledge concerning
these two impacts. Many species are still to be discovered or monitored and all introduced species
do not have adverse effects. Concerning the abandonment of terraces, different figures have been
given, ranging from 1% (Bantayan et al., 2012) for Batad and Bangaan, to 15% for the municipality
of Banaue (Herzmann et al., 1998) and 25-30% for the Ifugao province (UNESCO, 2002). Such a
high figure for the whole province comes from the fact that more abandonment occurs outside the
Banaue area, e.g. Nagacadan. In these municipalities, the little interest of tourists results in lower
funding from the government to repair damaged terraces and the conversion of rice terraces for
cash crops are needed to insure a monetary income (Gomez, 2003).
3.3. Literature review
Information on the study area was first collected through a systematic search of the scientific and
grey literature at the library of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)2 during a six week
stay at the Institute, from March to May 2013. IRRI is a major research center on rice in the world
and its library collects an important amount of publications on rice production. Since the
inhabitants of the municipality of Banaue rely heavily on rice production, most publications from
any fields ultimately relate to rice cultivation. Furthermore, as IRRI is hosted by the University of
the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB), the library of IRRI holds many master theses and doctoral
dissertations from past students of one of the Universities of the Philippines. Online literature
search was done using google.com and the ISI Web of Science search engines by employing the
following key words to identify relevant papers;
2 URL link: http://irri.org/
35
- For background information on the rice terraces: Topic=(Ifugao OR Banaue OR Poitan OR
Bangaan OR Batad OR “Cordillera Administrative Region” OR “Philippines rice terraces”
OR “Luzon rice terraces”)
- For conceptual considerations related to resilience: Topic=(Resilience OR Adaptability OR
Vulnerability OR Agroecosystem OR “Social-ecological” OR “Human-environmental
system”)
There were no requirements concerning the publication date of the articles, but recent ones were
preferred in the case of the theoretical framework. This literature review was necessary to acquire
background information on the rice terraces and culture in Banaue to build a questionnaire for the
household interviews. The search resulted in 116 publications concerning Ifugao, most of which
were used for this study. Relevant data that will complement the information received during the
surveys were also gathered from the literature search.
3.4. Household surveys
Household surveys were conducted in the municipality of Banaue in the province of Ifugao in a
four week period, from May to June 2013. A questionnaire (in Appendix I) was designed to obtain
data concerning the eight indicators to assess the state of the social-ecological system (see the
flowchart of the questionnaire conception and survey methodology, Figure 7). A prior field work
with interviews involving other LEGATO project members in Lao Cai, Vietnam in April 2013
helped for the conception of the questionnaire. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in three
areas of the municipality; barangay (smallest administrative unit in the Philippines and almost
synonymous with the traditional agricultural district sharing the same watershed) Batad, barangay
Bangaan and the town of Banaue composed of barangays Tam-an, Viewpoint and Poitan (Figure
8). These barangays are five of the six sampling sites chosen as part of the LEGATO Project.
The last site, Hingyon Poblacion, is in a different municipality, Hingyion, and was not included in
this present research owing to its remoteness and because it is in a different municipality. The rice
terraces of the municipality of Banaue are characteristically situated on the middle and lower
slopes of the mountain landscape, between 900 and 1,100 meters above sea level (Joshi et al.,
2004).
36
Survey objectives: Assess
resilience of the IRT
Define target population:
Rice Farmers
Develop sampling frame:
Households
Specify mode of data
collection: Questionnaire
Selection of households
and persons
Data processing
Data analyzing
Evaluation of survey
design
Sample design
Questionnaire design
Data collection Household listing
Selection of primary sampling
units: Five barangays
Sample size
determination: 90
Pre-testing, pilot study
Data capture and
Editing Quality control
Verification
Survey documentation
Survey report: Master’s
thesis
Estimation of
variance Data file
preparation Choice of analysis
Data dissemination
Figure 7 Flowchart of the survey process (based on Yansaneh, 2005).
37
Among the selected sites for this research, only Batad and Bangaan are part of the UNESCO-WHS
of the Ifugao Rice Terraces (UNESCO, 1995). The rice terraces of Viewpoint, Tam-an and Poitan,
despite the impressive landscape, were allegedly excluded from the UNESCO sites because of the
unregulated urban sprawl and cemented trails between the paddies (Marcos Mulao, personal
communication, May 2013). 30 households were surveyed randomly in Bangaan, as well as in
Batad. 10 households were surveyed in each Poitan, Tam-an and Viewpoint, for a total of 30 in
the surroundings of the town of Banaue. Most people, including farmers, can speak English in
Banaue. Thus, the questionnaires were not translated to Ifugao, the local language.
In accordance with the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing, the barangay capitan
(community leaders of each areas) were contacted personally at the barangay halls (i.e. town hall)
or at their residence before starting the interviews in the respective barangay. Indeed, under the
Figure 8 Location of the five research sites in the Municipality of Banaue (Source: Google Earth).
38
Article 7 of the Protocol, consent from community leader must be given before using traditional
indigenous knowledge concerning biodiversity (Kamau et al., 2010).
In two cases (barangays Tam-an and Viewpoint) the barangay capitan provided a person
knowledgeable of agriculture, the local Committee Chair on Agriculture, who assisted the
interviews and facilitated the interpretation. For other areas, a local farmer (in Bangaan) and a
tourist guide (in Batad) assisted the interviews and helped to find farmers to participate to the
interviews. In Poitan, interviews were done in the presence of the barangay capitan.
The surveys were followed by key informant interviews with two employees of the Municipal
Agriculture Office of Banaue, one barangay capitan and two homestay owners. This step was
important to identify species and rice varieties under different names depending on the localities,
as well as having a general overview of the municipality.
The questionnaires included different questions relating to the eight indicators chosen to assess the
state of the social-ecological system (Table 5). The results were analysed with descriptive statistics,
including means, frequencies and percentages. The geographic mean was used to normalize the
results of each proxies and compare the values for each barangay with the mean.
Biodiversity of rice varieties, aquatic species and plants species in woodlots were measured using
the following two indices of biodiversity;
1) Richness R, which quantifies the number of different species in the community.
2) Shannon index (H) and Shannon’s equitability (EH):
𝐻 = −∑𝑝𝑖 ln 𝑝𝑖
𝑅
𝑖=1
𝐸𝐻 = 𝐻/ ln 𝑅
where pi is the proportion of individuals found in species i (Shannon, 1948; Magurran, 1988).
When possible, the respondents were asked about changes in indicators in the last 10 years.
Alternatively, the results from the questionnaires were compared to data from previous literature
and data from the Bureau of Statistics of the Philippines. Graphics were generated using the
software MS Excel 2013 and the R statistical software v2.15.2 (R Development Core Team, 2011).
39
Sectorial indicators Proxy variables
Original value and
source
Soci
al r
esil
ien
ce
Fo
od
sec
uri
ty
Food sovereignty and self-
sufficiency
Number of months that households
can self-sufficient with their rice
production.
6-12 (Barton, 1919)
Number of food sources produced
by farmers (excluding from rice
fields).
4 (Conklin, 1980)
Eco
no
mic
s
Profitability
Income from agricultural
production. ~0 (Conklin, 1980)
Proportion of household involved
in tourism. ~0 (Barton, 1919)
Know
ledge
Traditional ecological
knowledge and practices
Proportion of households practicing
rituals related to rice production.
100%
(Conklin, 1980)
Proportion of households still
maintaining traditional land use
(Inado).
100% (Conklin,
1980)
Dem
ogra
phic
s
Population change
Proportion migrating household
members. Low (Barton, 1919)
Number of households practicing
traditional inheritance system
(primogeniture).
100% (Barton,
1922)
Eco
logic
al r
esil
ience
Eco
syst
em
stru
cture
Landscape heterogeneity
and fragmentation Variety of land uses cultivated. 4 (Conklin, 1980)
Biotic diversity
Diversity of rice varieties grown. 30-80 (Conklin,
1980)
Diversity of woodlot plants. 171 (Conklin,
1967a)
Diversity of aquatic species. -
Eco
syst
em p
roce
sses
and
fun
ctio
ns
Multiple uses of land and
plants
Number of uses of plants collected
in the woodlots. 7 (Conklin 1980)
Proportion of households using rice
plants for mulching.
100% (Conklin
1980)
Disturbance regime
Damaged terraces per household. low
Damaged irrigation canals. low
Proportion of invasive pest species. 0 (Barton, 1922)
Table 5 Indicators for social-ecological resilience of indigenous cultural landscapes.
40
3.5. Indicators
The development of the rice terraces in Ifugao cannot merely be considered as two stable states
separated by a period of drastic change. For instance, the introduction of exotic species modifying
the biotic composition occurred at different periods. Most changes occurring are continuous and a
state may be considered as stable only if the agents are adapted to the new structures. However,
some periods have been described as more stable and experiencing less drastic changes. The
indicators describing the social and ecological organizations are used to assess the change between
the early “traditional” and the current state of the system (Table 5). Information and data from
previous literature was taken to give a value to the indicators for the “traditional” state of the
system. To assess the current state, the information received from the surveys was applied.
Some values were well described in the literature, e.g. food sovereignty, traditional ecological
knowledge and multiple uses of land and plants, but some proxies, e.g. diversity of aquatic species
and rice varieties have not been thoroughly documented. In the latter case, only a trend can be
assumed from the farmers’ interviews.
Because of the very high complexity in social and ecological systems, it is virtually impossible to
measure with certainty the resilience level and the development stage. Indicators are therefore a
useful tool to simplify such complex dynamics. However, it is important to keep in mind that
indicators must be analyzed in a combination since single parameters may be misleading.
3.6. Limitation of the study
The areas surveyed are the most visited by tourists of the Banaue municipality, the latter receiving
90% of the tourists going in the Ifugao province (SITMo, 2008). Other towns may have a very
different development without the impacts or opportunities of tourism. Therefore, conclusions
from the present case study may not be applicable to every barangay of the municipality of Banaue
or the Ifugao province. Furthermore, the interviews targeted mostly farmers to give an overview
of the dynamics of the cultural landscape, although not every residents in Banaue own a rice field.
The biodiversity assessment relates to species being used by the farmers. Exhaustive biodiversity
investigation, including for instance arthropods, which can play an important role in biological
pest control, would render a better assessment of biodiversity and resilience. However, due to the
limited time and resources available for this study, a complete assessment could not be done.
41
4. Results
The following section refers to the analysis of data obtained from the household surveys. The
results are divided among the eight indicators of the state of the system. The section ends with a
compilation of the results for all indicators and a comparison of the current state with the
“traditional” state to assess the resilience of the system.
4.1. Socio-demographic characteristics
Overall, slightly more than half of respondents (54%) were female (Table 6). The same proportion
of males and females were surveyed in Batad while more females were surveyed in Bangaan (63%
as opposed to 37% males).
The population sampled in Bangaan is the youngest in average, with a mean age of respondents of
around 47 years old. The mean age of Batad respondents is the highest at around 53 years old,
while the mean age of respondents of Banaue stands in the middle at 49 years old. Batad also had
the largest range in the age of respondents with 67 years between the youngest and the oldest
respondents (22 and 89 years old, Figure 9). This high discrepancy can be useful to give different
information about the survey. For instance, younger respondents might give a better idea about the
contemporary status of traditional knowledge and practices, as older respondents might have more
extensive knowledge of biodiversity in woodlots and in rice paddies.
As birth certificates were not available before World War II, some of the respondents did not have
any records of their year of birth and therefore did not know their age. This was the case for six
respondents in Batad, three in Bangaan and one in Banaue. In this case, their age was estimated to
an average of 80 years old.
Male Female
Barangay Number % Number %
Banaue (n=30) 12 40 18 60
Bangaan (n=30) 11 37 19 63
Batad (n=30) 15 50 15 50
Total (n=90) 38 42 52 58
Table 6 Gender in percentage of respondents.
42
4.2. Food sovereignty
Food sovereignty was measured by the number of months the households can satisfy themselves
with their rice production. Also, the number of food sources produced by farmers (from rice fields,
forest, swidden fields, inado) is used as the second proxy of food sovereignty.
4.2.1. Autonomy from own rice field
The mean number of months for which households could consume their own rice ranged from 4.8
to 6 months (Table 7). These number do not differ significantly from the numbers given in the
literature, which was around six months (Conklin, 1980). However, the mean number of months
of self-sufficiency was lower in the three barangays compared to the recalled number of months
of 10 years before.
A small majority of households in Banaue (56%) and Bangaan (53%) have noticed a decreasing
sufficiency of rice in the last 10 years. Only a minority of households in the three barangays have
enjoyed an increased sufficiency of rice (20% in Banaue and Batad and 26% in Bangaan).
Most respondents (76%) explained their decreasing food sovereignty by having a bigger family
than before. Other reasons were the lack of sweet potatoes from the discontinuation of swidden
fields (10%), the abandonment of rice terraces (8%) and decreasing yields (8%).
Figure 9 Boxplot of the respondents’ age in the three areas surveyed (n=83).
43
The reasons for higher yields were the introduction of a new rice variety and a better maintenance
of their terraces (8 and 2 households respectively). Reasons for decreasing yields were more
plentiful. These ranged from pest damage (33 households), climate and hydrological regime
change (13), erosion (12), abandonment of rice terraces (6), late planting (3) and other reasons (3).
4.2.2. Number of food sources
Households in Batad are the ones conserving more land uses for food with a mean of 2.1 sources
of food per household, followed by Bangaan (1.8) and Banaue (1.7). This order is to be expected
since Banaue is the location of the regional market where plenty of goods can be bought, while the
remote location of Batad may compel farmers to be more self-sufficient.
Banaue
(n=30)
Bangaan
(n=30)
Batad
(n=30)
Number of months
Mean number of months of self-sufficiency per household 5.7 6.0 4.8
Estimated mean number of months of self-sufficiency 10
years ago 6.0 6.9 5.2
Change in the months of self-sufficiency -0.3 -0.9 -0.3
Number of households
Households with increasing sufficiency 6 8 6
Households with decreasing sufficiency 17 16 13
Households with no change in sufficiency 7 6 11
Figure 10 Different sources of food maintained per household in each barangay (n=90).
Woodlots Swiddens Garden Inado
Banaue 13 12 8 19
Bangaan 19 10 18 10
Batad 20 7 21 17
0
5
10
15
20
25
Num
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Table 7 Self-sufficiency of households from their own rice fields by the number of months and number of
households witnessing a change in self-sufficiency.
44
The traditional inado is still practiced in more than half of households in Banaue and Batad but in
only one-third of Bangaan households (Figure 10). Gardens and private forests are maintained by
nearly two-thirds of households in Batad and Bangaan, whereby they are cultivated by less than
half (gardens) and less than one-third (forests) of Banaue households. Swidden fields have
definitely decreased in Banaue, being maintained by only 12 households in Banaue, 10 in Bangaan
and 7 in Batad. This change was to be predicted since swidden cultivation is rapidly decreasing
around the world (Van Vliet et al., 2012).
Households cultivate in average 3.42 different crops in their swiddens and 3.26 in their gardens.
Most cultivated varieties in swiddens and gardens include sweet potatoe (Ipomoea batatas), ginger
(Zingiber officinale), string bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa) and onion
(Allium cepa).
4.3. Profitability
The current level of profitability of the social-ecological system is measured here by the different
sources of income for the farmers. Although migration remittance could be considered as a source
of income, it is not taken into account here because the income comes from the outside of the
system and can be difficult to measure. Therefore, the two proxies of profitability used are the
income from agricultural products and the income from tourism.
4.3.1. Income from agricultural products
Because of the low yield of the tinawon variety, rice production in Ifugao has never been a
profitable activity (Barton, 1922; Acabado, 2012). This characteristic of the system did not seem
to change since only three households could sell rice in a small quantity in Bangaan compared to
one in Batad and none in Banaue (Table 8). Other agricultural products were comparably more
Number of household
Banaue (n=30)
Bangaan
(n=30) Batad (n=30)
n % n % n %
Households selling agricultural products 4 13 9 30 5 17
Household selling rice 0 0 3 10 1 3
Table 8 Number of households with different forms of income.
45
profitable in the three barangays. Indeed, nine households in Bangaan, five in Batad and four in
Banaue were able to sell some vegetables for a source of income.
4.3.2. Income from tourism
Wood carvings were the products mostly commercialized, especially by farmers in Banaue (40%
of households), understandably because of the greater accessibility to the market and retailers
(Table 9). Overall, wood carving was the most common source of income from tourism, especially
in Banaue, followed by tourist guiding, the selling of handicrafts (e.g. as a middlemen), homestay
and massage. In total, half the population surveyed received some income from tourism. However,
most households were unable to give a number or percentage concerning the income from tourism
on the total income. Only two households received around 90% and 100% of their income from
their homestay. Farmers in Banaue and Batad had a long experience in tourism, with an average
of 18.6 and 19.1 years per person respectively, compared to 9.5 years for farmers in Bangaan,
which is often overlooked by tourists.
4.4. Traditional ecological knowledge and practices
The traditional ecological knowledge of the Ifugao is vast and should be further examined and
documented. In this study, the number of households still practicing rituals, the number of rituals
Number of household
Banaue
(n=30)
Bangaan
(n=30)
Batad
(n=30)
Total
(n=90)
Wood carving 12 6 3 21
Guide 2 4 10 16
Selling handicrafts 7 4 2 13
Homestay 0 1 2 3
Massage 0 0 2 2
Households involved in tourism 21 11 14 46
Previously carving wood 6 2 1 9
Mean number of years of experience
in tourism 18.61 9.50 19.14 15.75
Table 9 Number of households with at least one member involved in different forms of tourism (more than one
answer was possible) and mean number of years of experience for households currently involved in tourism.
46
exercised and the proportion of households cultivating the inado are the three proxies to quantify
the remaining traditional ecological knowledge.
4.4.1. Number of households still practicing rituals
The surveys showed that very few households still practice rituals related to agriculture in the
municipality of Banaue. Only three households have kept rituals in Batad and Bangaan, while 11
households have conserved this traditional custom in Banaue (Table 10). The reasons mentioned
by the farmers to explain this change are the erosion of the traditional culture due to
Christianization, and the costs associated with the sacrifices required during rituals involving
chickens and pigs. Households in Banaue still retaining rituals also practice more rituals with a
mean of 4.5 rituals per household per year. Bangaan households still do in average 3 rituals and
only 1.3 rituals are practiced in average in Batad.
4.4.2. Proportion of households doing inado
The inado, or mounds made of rice straw, weeds and mud in the rice field, is a traditional
ecological practice from Ifugao. It has the double function of providing food in the rice off-season
and recycling nutrients. More than half of households interviewed still cultivated the traditional
inado in Banaue and Batad (63% and 53%, respectively), whereas only a minority did in Bangaan
(27%, Table 11). The reasons mentioned to explain why inado was no more practiced is the lack
of time or the hard work required, because of the insufficient amount of water in the paddies and
because of the lack of biomass caused by apple snail grazing.
Households still practicing rituals
Average rituals practiced by
households
n %
Banaue (n=30) 11 37 4.55
Bangaan (n=30) 3 10 3
Batad (n=30) 3 10 1.33
Total (n=90) 17 19
Table 10 Number of households still practicing rituals and average number of rituals per households per year.
47
Table 11 Proportion of households cultivating inado.
4.5. Demographics
Population dynamics may be one of the most important indicator of resilience, and can also have
a great influence on other indicators such as food sovereignty. Settele (1998) notes that population
growth may have been the main reason why rice and sweet potatoes can no more supply the local
population, forcing the farmers to find jobs outside the agricultural sector. Population growth, with
market forces, is seen as the cause for rapid and widespread deforestation that occurred in the
upland Philippines after the World War II (Hayama, 2003).
In the last 20 years, the population of the barangays near the town of Banaue has constantly
increased (Figure 11). Conversely, the more isolated barangay of Batad has seen its population
Number of household
Banaue (n=30) Bangaan (n=30) Batad (n=30)
n % n % n %
Households still cultivating inado 19 63 8 27 16 53
Households not cultivating inado anymore 11 37 21 70 13 43
Households occasionally cultivating inado 0 0 1 3 1 3
Figure 11 Population change in Banaue from 1990 to 2010. Dashed lines
represent the barangays near the town of Banaue (sources: Barthelmes et al.,
1998; NSCB, 2012).
48
decrease since 1995 and the population growth of Bangaan has been more moderated than in
Banaue.
The two proxies used to assess the dynamics of population change are the application
primogeniture inheritance rights and the migration rate among households.
4.5.1. Proportion of households practicing primogeniture
A majority (60% in Banaue, 97% in Bangaan and 77% in Batad) of households across the
municipality of Banaue still practice primogeniture (Table 12). There is also a slight proportion
(10% in Banaue and 3% in Batad) using a variation of primogeniture as inheritance rule. This
variation generally entails leaving the biggest terrace to the first child and small parcels for the
remaining children. Few households divide the terraces equally among their children in Bangaan
and Batad (3% and 7%, respectively) although the equal division seems to be gaining in popularity
among Banaue households (16%).
Table 12 Number of households currently practicing primogeniture in each barangay.
4.5.2. Household size and migration
Biggest families were found in Banaue where families have a mean of 5.2 children, followed by
Batad 5 children) and Bangaan (4.1 children). Families in Banaue and Bangaan have been reduced
in the last generation since the families now count in average 1.6 and 1.8 persons less. Families in
Batad however have increased of 1.4 persons more on average by family compared to the previous
generation. However, this difference maybe be due to the higher age of respondents in Batad.
Batad had the highest proportion of migration among children in households with 2.3 children on
average leaving the barangay (46% of all children), followed by Banaue (1.3 children) and
Bangaan (0.7 child). Children in Banaue and Bangaan are less going abroad than the previous
Number of households practicing primogeniture
Yes No Variation Not applicable
n % n % n % n %
Banaue (n=30) 18 60 5 17 3 10 4 13
Bangaan (n=30) 29 97 1 3 0 0 0 0
Batad (n=30) 23 77 2 8 1 3 4 13
Total (n=90) 70 78 8 9 4 4 8 9
49
generation. The high proportion of migrating children is coherent with the population dynamics of
Figure 12, which shows a constant declining trend of the population of Batad.
4.6. Landscape heterogeneity
Landscape heterogeneity was calculated by the number of land uses still cultivated by the Ifugao
farmers. It is complemented by figures of land cover in the literature.
4.6.1. Land uses maintained per household
Beside rice fields, the forested areas were the most common land uses, being maintained by 67%
of households in Banaue and 80% of both Bangaan and Batad households (Figure 13). The third
most common land use was the private gardens cultivated in a quarter of Banaue households, half
of Bangaan households and 70% of Batad households. Finally, less than half of respondents in
each barangay are still maintaining swidden fields. The main reason for the abandonment of
swiddens is the labor and time needed for the maintenance and also pests such as rats and wild
pigs.
In their land cover assessment, Herzmann and colleagues (1998) noticed a change in land cover
characterized by less swidden and caneland. By comparing land cover maps of 1963 and 1998,
they noted that caneland and swidden declined from 35% to 14% and 7% to 1% of the total land
cover of Banaue, respectively. The authors also noticed an increase of forest cover, rising from 15%
to 35% of the total area.
Figure 12 Population figures in Banaue per household in each barangay.
Children abroad Total children Siblings abroad Total siblings
Banaue 1.3 5.2 2 6.8
Bangaan 0.7 4.1 2.9 5.9
Batad 2.3 5 1.8 3.6
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Per
sons
50
4.7. Biotic diversity
As mentioned earlier, biodiversity is an essential underlying basis for ecosystem functions and
services, as well as for resilience. It is important to note here that the Ifugao paddies, the primary
forests and even the cultivated woodlots are rich in biodiversity (Conklin, 1967b; Settele et al.,
1998; Madulid, 2010). The proxies used to measure biodiversity are the diversity of rice varieties
grown, the number of aquatic species used for food and the plants cultivated in the woodlots.
Although many more “unused” aquatic species and plants varieties may be overlooked, an
exhaustive biodiversity assessment would require a more resource-intensive and lengthy field
work.
4.7.1. Diversity of rice varieties
There is no official count concerning the number of traditional rice varieties in Ifugao. It was stated
in the past that more than 100 varieties could be cultivated in the province (Roxas, 1996; Settele,
1998) although more recently, Druguet (2009) counted only around thirty. This present study
allowed to identify in total 17 varieties in the three barangays surveyed (Table 13). As mentioned
previously, tinawon and pinidua are the two most common traditional varieties. Several varieties
were grown exclusively in Batad, including buyabuoy, ingeneh, imbongo and ingulla (Figure 14).
minangan and minayao are two varieties from Ifugao although originally from different
municipalities – Hungduan and Mayoyao, respectively.
Paddies Woodlots Swiddens Gardens
Batad 29 24 7 21
Bangaan 30 24 10 15
Banaue 30 20 12 8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Num
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Figure 13 Land uses maintained in each barangay (n=90).
51
Table 13 Rice varieties cultivated in the three study sites
Ifugao name Origin
1 Buyabuoy Native from Batad
2 Linagwang/pinidua Native from Banaue
3 Tinawon Native from Ifugao
4 Ingulla Native from Batad
5 California/Minayao From Mayoyao, Ifugao
6 Ingeneh Native from Batad
7 Imbongo Native from Batad
8 Tobja Unknown
9 Okland Native from Ifugao
10 Minangan From Hungduan, Ifugao
11 Intan From lowland
12 Tutu Unknown
13 C4 From Lowland
14 IR72 From Lowland
15 Biit From Lowland
16 Tadian From Mt Province
17 Palawan Upland variety
Figure 14 Rice varieties in each barangay by number of households (n=90).
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Num
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Banaue Bangaan Batad
52
Two varieties were of unknown origin (tutu and tobja) while five were introduced from outside
the province (IR72, C4, intan, biit, tadian, palawan).
Batad was the barangay growing the highest proportion of endemic (from the municipality of
Banaue) varieties (76%), compared to nearly half in Banaue. Farmers in Bangaan grow the highest
proportion of introduced varieties, with only 17% being endemic. This may be a sign of a shift
towards the intensification of rice production while traditional varieties are being lost.
4.7.2. Diversity of aquatic species in rice fields
The data gathered to assess the diversity of aquatic species in rice fields does not come from an
exhaustive census but rather comes from the following questions asked to farmers:
1) How many sources of food do you have in your rice field? and;
2) How many sources of food did you previously have that you don’t find in your rice field
anymore?
The aquatic species in question thus concern those that are used for food and do not concern those
species that are not used by farmers or used for different purposes, e.g. as livestock feed. The
results show that many different species are used for food in the rice fields. P. canaliculata,
Potamides spp., Vivipara burroughiana, the native bivalve called te’am (Dalliella spp.) and the
tamtampi, small introduced fish, are found in half the rice fields or more in the three barangays
(Table 14). Lymnaea viridis and Pila luzonica are two native snails (Conklin, 1980) that are
currently only rarely found around Banaue.
4.7.3. Diversity of plant species in woodlots
Forested areas, called muyung in Banaue, hold an impressive array of varieties despite being
managed for centuries. In total, 67 species were recorded in the municipality. This is certainly an
underestimate since not every respondent knew plant varieties very well and because farmers are
more likely to know the varieties of plants that are useful to them. Therefore, this analysis of plant
diversity refers to the plants varieties useful to local people. Batad was the barangay with the
highest number of varieties recorded (50) followed by Banaue (33) and Bangaan (31). The overall
biodiversity figures do not provide clear conclusions concerning the overall biotic diversity in each
barangay.
53
Table 14 Number of households collecting aquatic species for food consumption. The first category refers to the
number of household currently collecting aquatic species. The second category refers to the number of households
that previously (10 years ago) collected the species, the latter not being present anymore.
Number of households with
currently occurring species
Number of households with
previously occurring species
Banaue
(n=30)
Bangaan
(n=30)
Batad
(n=30)
Total
(n=90)
Banaue
(n=30)
Bangaan
(n=30)
Batad
(n=30)
Total
(n=90)
Molluscs
Golden apple snail
(Pomacea canaliculata) 30 30 28 88 0 1 0 1
Aggudong (Potamides
sp.) 22 29 18 69 3 0 10 13
Olippo (Vivipara
burroughiana) 15 23 20 58 2 3 6 11
Te’am (Dalliella sp.) 15 17 17 49 2 8 7 17
Introduced te’am 13 10 15 38 0 0 1 1
Ginga (Lymnaea viridis) 1 1 0 2 21 26 29 76
Batikul (Pila luzonica) 0 1 0 1 14 23 28 65
Fish
"Million fish"
(tamtampi) 18 24 27 69 1 1 3 5
Yuyu (Miagurnos
anguillicaudatus) 13 21 7 41 14 7 20 41
Tilapia (Tilapia nilotica) 3 17 17 37 7 3 7 17
Dulog (Channa striata) 0 1 10 11 11 8 18 37
Crustacea
Native crab (allama) 7 10 14 31 5 2 5 12
Introduced crab (allama) 0 2 1 3 0 1 0 1
Crayfish (uchang) 1 1 1 3 7 9 17 33
Amphibians
Toad (tuyong) 9 7 16 32 3 3 14 20
Frog (tukat) 0 2 2 4 0 1 0 1
The most commonly grown variety across the three study sites is the betel nuts tree (Areca catechu),
locally named moma, which is widely used for chewing in the province of Ifugao (Table 15). Other
varieties frequently used for food are avocadoes (Persea Americana), rattans (Calamus trispermus)
and native and introduced banana varieties (Musa errans and Musa spp., respectively). Many
varieties are used for construction, especially the palayon (Lithocarpus ilanosis) and hangatchen
(Symplocos sp.), as well as the introduced jermelina (Gmelina arborea) and pine trees (Pinus
kesiya). Finally, sunflower plants (Tithonia diversifolia) were used as fertilizers in rice fields.
54
Table 15 Number of households cultivating the most common plant varieties in woodlots (n=90). i and e represent
indigenous and endemic species respectively.
Richness for rice varieties and aquatic species was slightly higher in Bangaan than in the two other
barangays, but was significantly higher regarding plant species in Batad (Table 16). The Simpson’s
index (H) was also higher in Batad plant varieties in woodlots and aquatic species in paddies but
the Evenness (EH) was similar for the three barangays concerning rice and plant varieties and
aquatic species.
4.8. Multiple uses of land and plants
A few decades ago the Ifugao farmers were nearly self-sufficient by using the products from their
surrounding ecosystems and requiring minimal imports (Barton, 1922). To measure whether the
system is resilient in terms of utilization the farmers make of the ecosystems, the number of
different uses of forest products and the number of households using rice plants as fertilizer were
calculated.
Local name Family Scientific name Use Number of households
Momai Palmae Areca catechu Food, medicinal 37
Palayone Fagaceae Lithocarpus Solerianus Firewood, timber 34
Avocado Lauraceae Persea americana Food 28
Sunflower Compositae Tithonia diversifolia Fertilizer 28
Jermelina lamiaceae Gmelina arborea Construction,
wood carving 25
Rattane Palmae Calamus spp. Food, handicrafts 25
Pine tree Pinaceae Pinus kesiya Construction 21
Hangatcheni Symplocaceae Symplocos sp. Timber, medicine,
firewood 19
Tuwori Euphorbiaceae Bischofia javanica Timber, firewood 16
Bananae,i Musaceae Musa errans/spp. Food 15
Rice varieties
Plant varieties in woodlots Aquatic species in paddies
Barangay H Eh Species
Richness H Eh
Species
Richness H Eh
Species
Richness
Banaue 1.81 0.87 8 3.25 0.93 33 2.22 0.89 12
Bangaan 2.15 0.87 12 3.06 0.89 31 2.37 0.85 16
Batad 1.87 0.85 9 3.47 0.89 50 2.41 0.91 14
Table 16 Diversity indices for rice varieties, aquatic species and private forests.
55
4.8.1. Uses of forest products
The main use of plant species in the private forest is for firewood, followed by food and
construction (Figure 15). In Batad, farmers use some plants (mostly Tithonia diversifolia) as
fertilizer, whereas only a minority of farmers use forest plants for this purpose in Banaue and
Bangaan. This shows a capacity to adapt to new conditions by using new plant varieties. Indeed,
Tithonia diversifolia in not a native plant from the Philippines, but can be used as fertilizer given
that the plant decays rapidly, and provides organic nutrient to the paddies (Magcale-Macandog et
al., 2013).
A minority of households cultivated plants for medicinal uses or as pesticide to apply to rice fields.
Also, few households used the wood from their woodlot for wood carving or tying (e.g. the use of
rattan branches for furniture or cages). The farmers in Bangaan and Batad are using forest products
for 4 and 4.1 purposes in average, respectively, whereas Banaue farmers use forest products in
average for 3.4 purposes.
4.8.2. Uses of rice plant
The use of rice stalks as fertilizer is part of the traditional ecological practices of the Ifugao people.
Rice farmers in the lowlands of the Philippines normally burn rice residues after harvest to dispose
of the rice biomass. Conversely, the Ifugao farmers harvest only the panicles from the rice plants
and insert the rice stalks and straws in the soil. Although this biomass management practice has
not been thoroughly studied, it is thought that it improves the recycling of nutrients, reduces
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Num
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Banaue
Bangaan
Batad
Figure 15 Different uses of plant species found in forested areas in each barangay by number of households (n=90).
56
greenhouse gas emissions and provides biomass for vegetable culture. Figure 16 shows that the
mulching practice is still very common. Respondents mentioned that since rice stalks are inserted
in the soil by trampling, harder stalks sometimes have to be burned, with the ashes distributed on
the rice field.
4.9. Disturbance regime
Abandonment of rice terraces has been noted on several occasions in the recent literature and is a
concern among the inhabitants. The disturbances leading to the abandonment of terraces was
measured by three proxies: the amount of damage on the terraces, the amount of damaged irrigation
canals and the proportion of exotic species.
4.9.1. Amount of damaged terraces
Most households in the three barangays had less than 40% of damage on their terraces. Farmers in
Banaue were the ones with terraces in better condition with 80% of respondents having less than
40% damage. Rice paddies in Batad were the ones in the worse condition with around 55% of
surveyed households having more the 40% of their terraces damaged (see Figure 17). This result
is unsurprising since Batad has steeper slopes than the other areas and is therefore more vulnerable
to landslides and erosion.
Mulching Burning NA
Banaue 24 3 4
Bangaan 28 2 2
Batad 28 6 1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Num
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Figure 16 Uses of rice plant after harvest by number of househlds (n=90, more than one
answer possible).
57
If the condition of terraces does not seem alarming, most farmers noted a degradation of their
terraces in the last 10 years (Figure 18). A majority of farmers in Batad (28) noted a deterioration
compared to 21 in Banaue and 20 in Bangaan. Only 5 households in Bangaan and one in Batad
thought that their terraces were in a better shape now.
The main reasons for the degradation of the terraces are climatic conditions and natural hazards
(mainly drought and landslides), and pests (earthworms). Other notable reasons are the lack of
time for the maintenance of the terraces and road widening (especially in Bangaan). The reasons
noted for the improvement of the paddies are the financial help from UNESCO and from the
Department of Agriculture of the Philippine government (Table 17).
0-20% 20-40% 40-60% 60-80% 80-100% Does not know
Banaue 12 12 4 0 1 1
Bangaan 5 12 6 3 4 0
Batad 6 7 6 5 5 0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14N
um
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Figure 17 Proportion of damaged terraces by number of households (n=90).
Figure 18 Change of the condition of the terraces over the last 10 years by number of
households (n=90).
No change Better now Worse now Does not know
Banaue 4 0 21 5
Bangaan 3 5 20 2
Batad 1 1 28 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Num
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
58
Table 17 Main reasons for the degradation and the improvement of rice terraces by number of households (more than
one answer was possible).
4.9.2. Amount of damaged irrigation canals
Since paddies must be kept flooded during the rice growth season, irrigation canals should be
functioning properly. Irrigation canals were in a relatively good condition in Banaue, although
nearly one-third of the respondents did not know the condition (Figure 19).
If farmers in Banaue and Bangaan have noticed a slight deterioration of their irrigation in the last
10 years, most farmers in Batad (80%) have seen their irrigation system improved. This is largely
because irrigation canals have been cemented and therefore less maintenance is required. Reasons
for deterioration of irrigation systems were landslides and erosion, the lack of cement in canals,
Number of households
Reasons for degradation
Banaue
(n=30)
Bangaan
(n=30)
Batad
(n=30)
Total
(n=90)
Climatic conditions,
environmental disasters
Drought 3 8 13 24
Landslides 5 8 8 21
Too much rain 7 0 5 12
Typhoon 2 2 2 6
El Niño 1 2 3 6
Eathquake 2 0 1 3
Total 20 20 32 72
Pest species Earthworm 12 10 7 29
Kiwit/eel 1 0 0 1
Total 13 10 7 30
Infrastructure
development Road widening 0 5 1 6
Others
Less time for maintenance 3 3 4 10
No money for repair 1 0 0 1
Takes more time to repair 1 0 0 1
Terraces located oo far 1 0 0 1
Total 6 8 5 19
Reasons for improvement
Funds from UNESCO 0 3 0 3
Repaired by the Department of
Agriculture 1 0 1 2
Repaired 1 0 1 2
Total 2 3 2 7
59
reliance of farmers on governments, less maintenance from farmers, earthworms, harder rain than
before, narrow canals, and road widening creating erosions.
4.9.3. Proportion of invasive species
Pest species are becoming a major issue in the municipality of Banaue and contribute to a large
extent to crop failures. Novel species combined with the loss of traditional knowledge of natural
pesticides have made rice farming increasingly laborious. Farmers of the three barangays consider
the “giant earthworm” to be the major pest in their rice fields (Figure 20). This observation is
consistent with previous studies on pest species in Banaue (Joshi et al., 1999; Gomez and Pacardo,
2005). Rice terraces around Banaue are known to have a high organic matter content, a moderately
acidic soil and high level of moisture. This explains the higher density of earthworms than in other
municipalities of Ifugao with different soil conditions such as Nagacadan (Gomez and Pacardo,
2005). They do not have a direct negative impact on rice crops, as they do not compete for rice
provision with humans. However, they alter the physical dynamics of the rice terraces. The holes
burrowed by earthworms cause water seepage and prolong the drought in the dry season. This
Average Good BadDoes not
know
Rainfed/no
irrigation
Banaue 5 11 6 8 0
Bangaan 11 7 10 1 1
Batad 5 12 12 1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35N
um
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Figure 19 Condition of irrigation canals by number of households in each barangay (n=90).
60
creates cracks along embankments and erosion when the rainy season starts. They provoke a shift
in the hydrological regime that is detrimental to the structure of the rice terraces.
Next to the earthworm, rats and golden apple snails are causing most damages. As secondary pests,
rats, apple snails, rice bugs (Leptocorisa acuta) and birds (weaver birds, Lonchura spp.) represent
a threat for several farmers in Banaue. Of these, rodents, rice bugs and the birds may not be
considered as “native”, but have not been introduced in the last decades. Pest species that are a
major concern in lowland paddies across Southeast Asia, such as locust pests, leaffolders and stem-
borers, do not have a significant impact in Banaue. Only three respondents mentioned one of the
latter pest species in the three barangays (Figure 20). The proportion of households exposed to
pest species that have been introduced in the last 50 years (earthworms, golden apple snails and
eels) as opposed to the total number of pest species reaches 60% in Banaue, 63% in Bangaan and
71% in Batad.
Rodents are the most important mammal pests in the rice terraces and can cause great crop losses
(Figure 21). However, not all rodent species are detrimental to rice harvests. Mainly, Rattus
tanezumi and to a lesser extent Rattus exulans, both non-native species, are considered as pests in
Ifugao. Conversely, the indigenous common Philippine forest rat (Rattus everetti), the Luzon
striped earth-rat (Chrotomys mindorensis) and the montane striped earth-rat (Chrotomys
whiteheadi) have been considered as beneficial for rice cultivation. These indigenous vermivorous
rodent species are thought to feed on important pests, e.g. on “giant earthworms” and on golden
apple snails (Stuart et al., 2007). Moreover, they are thought to increase the decomposition rates
Earthworms Rats Apple snail Rice bugs BirdsGrass-
hoppersLeaffolders Stem-borers Eels
Batad 17 6 5 2 1 0 0 0 0
Bangaan 23 11 6 1 3 1 1 0 0
Banaue 15 10 4 2 1 0 0 1 2
0
10
20
30
40
50
60N
um
ber
of
ho
use
ho
lds
Figure 20 Major pest species by number of households in each barangay (n=90, more than one answer was
possible).
61
of leaf litter, thus releasing nutrients into the soil through their burrowing activities (Stuart et al.,
2007). Therefore, pest management should aim at reducing the impacts of Rattus tanezumi while
preserving the populations of non-target rodent species. According to Miller and colleagues (2008),
15% of 360 farmers interviewed in Banaue were using unlabeled chemicals (zinc phosphide),
given free of charge by the municipal agricultural officer, albeit most respondents believed rodent
damage still occurs after the application of chemicals. Rodent pest control measures should avoid
the free distribution of non-specific chemicals to rice farmers for rodent control, assuming the
ineffectiveness of these chemicals, their impact on non-target species, the environmental health
implications, and the general desire of Banaue farmers to use non-chemical control measures
(Miller et al., 2008).
Invasive species are a major problem mostly because of the lack knowledge concerning pest
management. In total, only 14 households out the 90 surveyed (6 in Batad, 6 in Bangaan and 2 in
Banaue) were trying to solve pest problems with natural pesticides (mostly using tobacco leaves),
though acknowledging that efficiency of the method is uncertain. Conversely, half of the
Figure 21 Damage caused by rodents on a rice paddy. Rattus Tanezumi is
one of the major cause of crop loss in Banaue (picture taken in Banaue, 2013).
62
respondents (45) in the three barangays indicated using chemical pesticides regularly or
occasionally, “if needed”.
Concerning the apple snail, farmers mostly hand-pick the snails as often as they can to reduce
damage on seedlings, resulting in extra labor. The problem is definitely not as important as in the
rest of the Philippines. Only 16% of respondents consider the snail as the most serious pest problem
whereas this number reaches 75-100% in the rest of the country (Martin et al., 1998). This is mainly
because more plants are available in the rice fields of Ifugao, for instance Azolla pinnata, for the
consumption of the snail, while weeding is more intensive in the lowlands. In their experiment,
Martin and colleagues (1998) found out that the apple snail prefers other plants to rice, and would
only eat the seedlings if alternative food is absent in the paddies.
Farmers also clean the surroundings of the rice fields and cover rats holes to prevent them to come
close to their paddies. Finally, before harvest time, the owners of the rice fields have to scare birds
with rope and plastic, a method also used in the lowland. All these activities, combined with the
maintenance of terrace dikes after erosion caused by earthworms, require more time than before
for the same amount of rice production. The energy needed for the maintenance of the system has
increased but productivity has not.
4.10. Social-ecological state
The results of the survey show different figures (e.g. frequencies and means) and must be
normalized to be interpreted and compared together. A factor of 1 to 5 was applied to the number
of households with damage of 0-20% to 80-100%, respectively. The number for each damage
proportion was then aggregated. The same was done for the irrigation canals condition proxy using
factors of 1 to 3 to the number of households possessing “good”, “average” and “bad” irrigation
infrastructure, respectively.
The results of each proxy were compared between the three barangays, with the mean equaling 1.
In other words, each proxy value represents the distance to the mean of the three barangays (Table
18).
Also, the results for each sub-indicators (e.g. Autonomy from own rice field and number of food
sources) are averaged to represent the sectorial indicator (e.g. food sovereignty).
63
Table 18 Indicator values compared to the mean.
4.10.1. Resilience
To measure resilience of the social-ecological system of Banaue, one way is to compare the current
state of the system with the traditional state, or the state of the “basin of attraction”. Although it is
not possible to accurately set a specific value on most indicators for the traditional state of the
system (e.g. on biodiversity), one can assume that the traditional system in Banaue is characterized
by the indicators of Table 19. For instance, relatively high food sovereignty (6-8 months with own
Indicators and proxies Banaue Bangaan Batad
Autonomy from own rice field 1.04 1.09 0.88
Number of food sources 0.91 0.96 1.13
Food sovereignty 0.98 1.03 1.01
Income from agricultural products 0.33 1.88 0.79
Income from tourism 1.37 0.72 0.91
Profitability 0.85 1.30 0.85
Households practicing rituals 1.94 0.53 0.53
Number of rituals practiced 1.54 1.01 0.45
Cultivation of inado 1.33 0.56 1.12
Traditional ecological knowledge 1.60 0.70 0.70
Practicing of primogeniture 0.77 1.24 0.99
Migration rate 0.85 0.58 1.57
Demographics 0.81 0.91 1.28
Land uses maintained per household 0.92 1.03 1.05
Landscape heterogeneity 0.92 1.03 1.05
Diversity of rice varieties 0.96 1.07 0.98
Diversity of aquatic species in rice fields 0.97 1.02 1.01
Diversity of plant species in woodlots 0.98 0.96 1.06
Biotic diversity 0.97 1.02 1.02
Uses of forest products 0.68 1.14 1.18
Proportion of households using rice plants for
mulching. 1.08 0.79 0.90
Multiple uses of land and plants 0.88 0.97 1.04
Proportion of damaged terraces 0.74 1.10 1.16
Proportion damaged irrigation canals 0.75 1.13 1.12
Proportion of invasive pest species 0.92 0.97 1.1
Disturbances 0.80 1.07 1.13
64
rice yield), traditional ecological knowledge (around eight rituals per year), a high landscape
heterogeneity including the cultivation of swidden fields, several uses forest products and
widespread use of rice plant as fertilizer characterize the traditional system. The traditional state
experiences low disturbances and there is very little opportunity to gain cash income (i.e. low
profitability). Finally, population should be stable, since after several centuries, the area still has a
relatively low population.
Overall, the three barangays show similar results in food sovereignty and biotic diversity (Figure
22). Banaue exhibits higher resilience in terms of traditional ecological knowledge and a relatively
low degree of disturbances. The system in Banaue is also characterized by a low degree of
profitability of the social-ecological system, though this is understandable since a lot more off-
farm job opportunities are available in Banaue. Bangaan and Batad show similarities in terms of
food sovereignty, traditional ecological practices, landscape heterogeneity, biotic diversity and
multiple uses of land and plants.
The trends observed for each indicators show a relatively high degree of change in the system if
compared to the system described by ethnologists Barton (1919, 1922) and Conklin (1967a, 1967b,
1980).
0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
Food sovereignty
Profitability
Traditional ecological
knowledge
Demographics
Landscape heterogeneity
Biotic diversity
Multiple uses of land
and plants
Disturbances
Banaue Bangaan Batad
Figure 22 Comparison of the current state of the social-ecological system between the three barangays.
65
Table 19 Comparison of the current value of indicators of the state of the social-ecological system with the “traditional”
value as described in the literature. Also, the trend in the value of each indicator is shown as an arrow.
Sectorial indicators Proxy variables Traditional value
and source
Current range
of value Trend
Food sovereignty and
self-sufficiency
Number of months that
households can self-sufficient
with their rice production.
6-12 (Barton,
1919) 4.8-6 ↘
Number of food sources
produced by farmers (excluding
from rice fields)
4 (Conklin,
1980) 1.7-2.1 ↘
Profitability
Income from agricultural
production
0 (Conklin,
1980) 0-30% -
Proportion of household
involved in tourism 0 (Barton, 1919) 37-70% ↗
Traditional ecological
knowledge and
practices
Proportion of households
practicing rituals related to rice
production.
100%
(Conklin, 1980) 10-37% ↘
Proportion of households still
maintaining traditional land use
(Inado)
100% (Conklin,
1980) 27-63% ↘
Population change
Proportion migrating household
members
Low (Barton,
1919) 17-46% ↗
Number of household practicing
traditional inheritance system
(primogeniture).
100% (Barton,
1922) 60-97% -
Landscape
heterogeneity and
fragmentation
Variety of land uses cultivated 4 (Conklin,
1980) 2.3-2.7 ↘
Biotic diversity
Diversity of rice varieties grown. 30-80 (Conklin,
1980) 17 -
Diversity of woodlot plants 171 (Conklin,
1967a) 67 -
Diversity of aquatic species - 16 ↘
Multiple uses of land
and plants
Number of uses of plants
collected in the woodlots. 7 (Conklin 1980) 3.4-4.1 ↘
Proportion of households using
rice plants for mulching
100% (Conklin
1980) 80-93% -
Disturbance regime
Damaged terraces per household low medium ↗
Damaged irrigation canals low low ↘ Proportion of invasive pest
species 0 (Barton, 1922) 63-71% ↗
66
The greatest changes observed were the number of sources of food, the proportion of households
involved in tourism, the proportion of households practicing rituals, the number of rituals practiced
and the proportion of households cultivating inado, the migration among households, the number
of uses of plants collected in the woodlots and the proportion of invasive pest species. On the
contrary, the income from agricultural production, the number of household practicing
primogeniture and the proportion of households using rice plants for mulching did not change
significantly. The self-sufficiency of households, by the number of months they can eat their own
rice and the variety of land uses cultivated have slightly decreased, whereas damaged terraces
change have increased. Interestingly, respondents noticed an improvement of their terraces. Lastly,
it is difficult to assess the trend concerning the diversity of plants species in woodlots and rice
varieties since no inventories for Banaue exist in the literature. It is probable that introduced plants
have enriched the biodiversity in the woodlots, although more research would be needed to
demonstrate this hypothesis. The biodiversity of aquatic species in the rice paddies has likely
decreased since several species mentioned in previous studies (Conklin, 1980) are not, or rarely,
seen in the paddies anymore, i.e. Thiara asperata, Lymnea cumingiana, Limnea veridis and Pila
Luzonica.
4.10.2. Adaptability
Important elements of adaptability are the existence and implementation of mechanisms for the
evolution of novelty or learning that facilitate experimentation, discovery, and innovation
(Carpenter et al., 2001). For instance, experimentation of new rice and plant varieties may help to
improve the livelihood of the communities. In this matter, Bangaan seems to show higher
adaptability since a higher proportion of modern varieties can be found in this barangay.
Profitability is also higher in Bangaan, compared to the two other barangays. Households in
Bangaan were able to sell more agricultural products, which allows the farmers to receive an
income while pursuing rice terracing. This does not lead to a reduction of disturbances, however,
since rice fields in Bangaan are the most sensitive to pressures. Although Banaue shows several
signs of resilience, the fact that several farmers have moved to off-farm employment while
conserving traditional practices may also be a sign of the capacity of adaptation to the new reality
of the market economy.
67
5. Discussion
The social-ecological system of the rice terraces in Banaue is in constant development. However,
stability is generally preferred to evolution in cultural production landscapes, as the maintenance
of the provisioning service of rice production is needed for the community. For the best or the
worst, ecosystem structures have changed with introduced species in the rice terraces and the
surrounding forests. The new biological composition has influenced the ecosystem properties in a
way that more energy is needed now than before to maintain the ecosystem at the desirable stage
of development. Climate change will undoubtedly add to this energy requirement with stronger
rain events and more recurrent collapsed terraces. This chapters discusses two important
considerations related to resilience and adaptability, the possible alternative states and future
trajectories. Furthermore, the changes and trade-offs in ecosystem services caused by the
modification of the system in the last three to five decades are examined. Finally, seven options to
enhance the adaptability of the system are outlined.
5.1. Alternative states and future trajectories
Alternative states and regime shifts are topics that are gaining in popularity in the resilience
literature (Folke et al., 2004; Kinzig et al., 2006), but few researches have explored the alternative
states, and their consequences, of traditional rice terracing. Some prior studies have investigated
the successional stages in Ifugao after terrace and swidden fields’ abandonment, and also what
pathways can the system take considering the social factors (tourism, need for cash income, high
yielding varieties). Climate change is expected to require an adaptive response from the system in
order to maintain and improve the livelihood of the farmers.
5.1.1. Alternative ecological states
In the case of abandonment, Serrano and Cadaweng (2005) noticed that succession of fallow
swiddens is characterized in a first stage by the development of cogon (Imperata cylindrica) to
talahib (Saccharum spontaneum) to form a caneland land cover, followed by the appearance of
ferns, and later the emergence of miscellaneous shrubs and medium-sized trees. Eventually,
dipterocarp tree species such as lauan (Shorea contorta), guijo (Shorea guiso) and bagtikan
68
(Parashorea malaanonan) may begin to grow, which leads to a reconstituted forest (Serrano and
Cadaweng, 2005). This process of natural secondary succession may take 20 years or more
depending on initial soil conditions.
Considering the rapid abandonment process at the province scale, an alternative state of the present
system is the terraces in a dry idle state due to emigration. This state was observed after the collapse
of the Inca society resulting from the invasion of the Spaniards in Peru (yellow cycle, Figure 23).
Such a development of the system would mean a considerable decline in connectedness within the
system (e.g. fewer and lower ecosystem services) and lower ecosystem indicators (e.g. lower
primary production and carbon sequestration). Because of the high amount of precipitation in the
Banaue area, it is unlikely that abandoned terraces would remain idle with low primary production.
Conversely, a natural secondary succession characterized by reforestation of the slopes would
significantly increase ecosystem indicators (e.g. higher carbon sequestration and water regulation)
Figure 23 Adaptive cycles of the Ifugao rice terraces. In black is the current development of the system, compared
to agricultural terraces after abandonment in a dry idle state (yellow cycle) and forested terraces after secondary
succession (green cycle).
Possible alternative state, abandoned
terraces in a dry idle state (picture
taken in Pisac, Peru 2009)
Possible alternative state,
reforested slopes (picture
taken in Bangaan, 2013)
Possible alternative state,
reforested slopes (picture
taken in Bangaan, 2013)
Connectedness
Current state of the terraces
(picture taken in Bangaan,
2013)
Cap
ital
/Eco
syst
em
ind
icat
ors
69
although with lower connectedness if we consider cultural services. Nevertheless, as most
indicators are in a declining stage, one could assume that the system is in a phase of readjustment
(Ω phase) rather than conservation (K phase, see Figure 1 and Figure 23).
5.1.2. Future trajectories
Plachter et al. (1998) identified four possible trajectories that could be taken by the system in
Banaue in the coming decades (Table 20). The first scenario is the continuation of the present state
consisting of the development of infrastructure and increasing tourism. This would lead to further
abandonment of rice terraces and slow deterioration of agricultural biodiversity in paddies as
farmers turn towards alternative means of living. Rising wood prices would make handicrafts less
profitable and developing infrastructures would eventually degrade the primary forest of the
watershed and forest biodiversity.
The second scenario concerns an increase in short-term mass tourism, which would divert farmers
from rice farming. The higher demand for handicraft would lead to accelerated depletion of the
watershed and the forest biodiversity. Higher demand for handicrafts would also increase wood
demand and thus its price, making handicrafts less profitable on the long-term. As farmers would
migrate towards tourist hotspots, abandonment would be accelerated in smaller barangays far from
the tourist route, and so would be the loss of aquatic biodiversity and endemic rice varieties.
The third scenario projects a development centered on agricultural intensification. In this scenario,
the watershed would be protected considering its importance for the rice terracing. Consequently,
forest biodiversity would be maintained. High yielding rice varieties or vegetable crops would be
introduced to the area. However, nutrient input from green manure would not be sufficient for two
crops per year and therefore farmers would need to apply fertilizer and possibly pesticides. This
change would induce lower biodiversity in rice fields. The income from higher agricultural
production would decrease the dependence of rice farmers on tourism for cash income and the
deleterious impacts of tourism, such as deforestation of handicrafts, would be lower.
The last scenario refers to a better integration of tourism and agricultural development. As in the
previous scenario, watershed would be strictly protected thus preserving biodiversity and water
flow.
70
Table 20 Four possible scenarios for the Banaue region and their consequences on primary forest in the watershed,
agriculture, tourism, handicrafts, agricultural biodiversity and forest biodiversity developed by Plachter and colleagues
(1998). The arrows ↘ and ↗ indicate a negative and positive outcome of the scenario of the social-ecological system
parameter, respectively, whereas – does not show clear impacts.
Traditional rice varieties would be conserved and grown with high yield varieties and vegetables
in restricted areas. Entrance fees would be charged to promote ecotourism and longer stay for
fewer tourists.
On the short-term, the second scenario is unlikely. Tourist arrivals have levelled off in recent years,
and due to the remoteness of the area, it is hardly imaginable that Banaue will be the site of mass
tourism. Furthermore, the survey results showed that few respondents produce handicrafts and for
most of them, the activity was carried on only in their free time. Furthermore, Herzmann et al.
(1998) mention an increase of the forested area from 15% to 35% between 1963 and 1997.
However, this situation could change if public transportation would be facilitated, for instance by
a construction of an airport nearby.
New rice varieties have been introduced, mostly in Bangaan, reflecting a trend in Ifugao since 40%
of farmers are now using hybrid rice varieties of Indica sub-species at the province level (Druguet,
2012). Farmers in Nagacadan and Mayoyao have successfully introduced high yielding varieties
and can now plant two crops per year. However, the introduction of new varieties in Nagacadan
was related to the occurrence of brown plant hoppers, Nilaparvata lugens (Gomez, 2003).
Additionally, the replacement of traditional varieties by high yielding ones means trading off
biodiversity and natural heritages for higher production and higher economic benefits.
The cultivation of other crops seem to be a viable option to increase food security and profitability.
In a previous study, it was shown that rice farmers obtained 67% of their cash income from
agroforestry species (Guy, 1995). It would be possible to use abandoned terraces and unused
Scenarios Primary
forest Agriculture Tourism Handicrafts
Agricultural
biodiversity
Forest
biodiversity
1. Continuation of
present state ↘ ↘ ↗ ↘ ↘ ↘
2. Short-term mass
tourism ↘ ↘ ↗ ↘ ↘ ↘
3. Agricultural
intensification and
technical
modifications
↗ ↗ - - ↘ -
4. Integrated
development ↗ - ↗ ↗ - -
71
swidden fields or caneland to expand the culture of agroforestry products or vegetables that do not
require as much water as rice. Conversion of rice terraces to vegetable terraces is a potential path
that has already been taken by farmers in Nagacadan. In a survey by Gomez (2003), 37.8% of
farmers converted their field to vegetable terraces as opposed to 3% in Bocos, Banaue. The main
reason for this conversion was the lack of water in paddies and also the accessibility to a market.
Furthermore, Nagacadan has never been a tourist hotspot comparable to the Banaue municipality
and, consequently, benefits less from governmental support. However, monocropping, as in the
case of Phaseolus vulgaris in Nagacadan, is ill-advised as price fluctuation could leave the region
more vulnerable and deteriorate soil conditions.
5.1.3. Climate change
Despite the likelihood that climate change will strongly influence the future development of the
system, few scholars have investigated the possible impacts of climate change. The literature
related to disturbances in Ifugao focuses mainly on the integration to the market economy, tourism
and pest species but rarely mentions upcoming climate change.
Ifugao farmers, including those in Banaue, are well aware of climate change. They have noticed
changes in timing of rains, increase in temperature, and decrease of water from sources and
frequency of drought (Licyayo, 2013). Beside the change in the timing of rains, they also felt that
the volume of precipitation is more important than before. Decrease in yield attributed to changes
in climatological condition such as temperature and decrease supply of water from watershed have
also been observed (Licyayo, 2013).
Ifugao farmers have already had to adapt their farming practices to changing climatic conditions.
Due to the prolonged cold season, the farmers in Ifugao started to move their transplanting season
from December of each year to January, thus altering the rice cycle cropping (Nalliw-Licnachan,
2009). This adaptation might not be without consequences since farmers reported important
vulnerability of their crop to rice bugs (Leptocorisa oratorius) when they harvest later than usual
(i.e. in August and September instead of July).
72
5.2. Ecosystem services and well-being from rice terraces
The transformation of the system in recent decades has brought a number of trade-offs in
ecosystem services and wellbeing. The introduction of new aquatic species is a good example.
Although it has been mostly beneficial in the case of M. anguillicaudatus and the T. nilotica fish
species, the golden apple snail and the tamtampi have resulted in negative impacts. Martin et al.
(1998) argued that the phytophagus apple snail does not compete with native snails, which feed on
detritus and periphyton. Further, some authors (Settele, 2003; Joshi et al., 2005) stated that the
introduced snail has been regarded as beneficial, as they reduce work efforts for weeding. However,
farmers surveyed believed in a large majority that the golden apple snail was responsible for the
absence of native snails in their rice field. This may be caused by the time lag between the
introduction of the exotic species and its negative impacts (Crooks and Soule, 1999). Brought in
the area to increase food provisioning, only few farmers have adopted the snail in their diet. It has
also reduced net primary production available for green manure for the vegetable mounds (inado)
and reducing the concentration of Azolla, resulting in less nitrogen fixing. Therefore, if a new
source of food and perhaps less labour was gained from the introduction of the new snail, the
farmers lost more snail species to eat, harvest smaller rice and vegetables crops from the rice fields
(see Table 21).
In the case of the tamtampi, also introduced to provide food (Aida Paganahe, personal
communication, May 2013), farmers have acknowledged that it was one of the main reason beside
the apple snail for the declining number of appreciated native aquatic species such as P. luzonica,
L. viridis and C. striata. Now that this species of fish is present in nearly all fields, although few
other species remain, farmers have lost nutrition diversity. Finally, the introduction of the large
bivalve locally called te’am as an additional food source is detrimental to farmers as it cuts their
feet when they have to work in their rice paddies. In this case, the trade-off lies between higher
seafood provision and lower environmental security.
Tourism is a relatively new cultural service from Banaue ecosystems. Although it is delivered in
situ (according to the classification of Fisher et al., 2009), the service and benefits are appreciated
by non-local beneficiaries, since tourists come from other Philippine provinces and overseas.
Tourism can be either a source of revenues promoting development and environmental
conservation (Akama and Kieti, 2007; Morrison et al., 2012), or a source of environmental
degradation (Mbaiwa, 2003; Mateu-Sbert et al., 2013).
73
Table 21 Trade-offs in ecosystem services and benefits related to new ecosystem structures (introduced species) and
social parameters (tourism).
Tourist come to Banaue for the recreational opportunity of hiking between rice terraces, appreciate
the landscape and the unique culture of the Ifugao.
These services provide them with benefits such as leisure and wellbeing (Table 21). The residents
also benefit from the tourist arrivals, for instance by working in the tourist industry (e.g. as tourist
guides or craftsman) which provides much needed cash income. The fact that most tourists go to
Banaue instead of other municipalities of Ifugao (see Figure 24) adds value to the traditional
culture and the terraces for the farmers themselves (SITMo, 2008). However, tourism also has its
load of environmental issues. For example, tourist infrastructure may divert water sources that
would otherwise contribute to keep the terraces flooded, and accelerate erosion. If unregulated,
tourist accommodation can also reduce the attractiveness of the cultural landscape, originally
composed of traditional houses, rice terraces and the natural environment. Finally, the
commercialization of some cultural symbols, e.g. the rice god carving, can lead to the
desacralization of these symbols and result in the decline of the cultural heritage value (SITMo,
2008).
Changes Services gained Services lost Benefits gained Benefits loss
Introduced species
Golden
apple snail Seafood
Seafood, Rice and
vegetable crops Less labour
Nutrition
diversity
Tamtampi Seafood Seafood Nutrition
diversity
Te’am Seafood Environmental
safety
Earthworm
Water flow regulation,
erosion regulation, rice
production
Tourism
For
Banaue
residents
Tourism
Water flow regulation,
erosion regulation,
aesthetics
Household
income
Employment,
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage
For
tourists
Landscape
aesthetics,
recreational
opportunity,
cultural heritage
Leisure,
wellbeing,
74
The unintentional introduction of giant earthworm species did not bring any services to farmers
but rather several disservices (Figure 25). The presence of the new worm disrupt the biophysical
structure and processes of the rice terraces by boring holes in the dikes, causing water seepage.
The lack of water, in turn, increases erosion and reduces the potential crop and harvest of the
farmers. In fact, farmers need to mobilize more resources now to reach the same harvest as before
since they repeatedly have to repair the collapsed walls. The lower harvest decrease the food
security of the population and the higher cost of maintenance reduces the value of the terraces.
Besides altering the water and erosion regulation in a detrimental manner to rice farmers,
earthworms may increase the release of greenhouse gases from rice paddies. Indeed, the presence
of earthworms is thought to increase net soil greenhouse gas emissions in rice paddies (Lubbers et
al., 2013), although these findings need to be further investigated (Zhang et al., 2013). The impacts
of earthworms are little studied and new species are discovered regularly in the Cordillera
Administrative Region (Hong and James, 2008, 2010, 2011). The movement of tourists, scientists
and locals around the region is likely to intensify the introduction of cryptogenic species of
earthworms and exacerbate the problems that farmers are now coping with.
Another similar issue is the newly introduced Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus) locally known
as kiwit. Although the eel is not yet widely distributed in Ifugao comparably to earthworms and P.
canniculata, the farmers having eels in the fields believed it could soon become the major pest for
Figure 24 Tourist arrival contribution by municipality in 2006 (SITMo, 2008).
75
them. It has already become a major invasive species causing severe ecological damage to native
communities in other wetland ecosystems, e.g. in Florida (Clay, 2003). The swamp eel burrows
holes in dikes which causes water seepage, similarly to the earthworm. Tough it is edible, farmers
interviewed had no interest in eating the new fish.
Some cultural services (religious experience, cultural heritage, and rituals) are gradually being lost,
possibly after the integration to the market economy, the increasing number of tourists and
Christianisation. Although the ecosystem services potential is still present, e.g. heirloom varieties
are still grown, the services give lower benefits from the ecosystems than before because of
religion shift. The public religious interest has changed, from the traditional religion including
several gods from the nature (Conklin, 1980) to Christianism. Therefore, the farmers have a
different relation with the land and rituals are no more needed for the production of rice. This
change in value system also affects terracing techniques (e.g. late transplanting) that were strongly
influenced by rituals (Figure 26).
Biophysical
structure or process
(e.g. presence of
earthworms)
Ecosystem functions
(e.g erosion and
water flow regime)
Ecosystem Services
Potential
(e.g. lower rice
production)
Ecosystem Services
(e.g. lower rice
harvests)
Use Value
(decreasing food
sovereignty,
increased labor )
Exchange Value
(e.g. higher cost of
rice imports)
Ecosystem services exploitation:
Again investing resources
Ecosystem service potential mobilisation: investing
time, labour, energy, material & money (to mobilise
the former)
Figure 25 Shift in the supply of regulating and provisioning ecosystem services. The non-intentional introduction
of the earthworms generated disservices and resulted in a loss of benefits for the inhabitants (adapted from
Spangenberg et al., 2013).
76
5.3. Options to increase adaptability
Most authors agree to say that conservation initiatives needs to be applied with a bottom-up
approach (Settele, 2003; Nozawa et al., 2008). Since the Ifugao province is a culturally rich area,
discrepancies and tensions concerning conservation objectives and priorities may easily arise
(Guimbatan and Baguilat, 2006).
5.3.1. Environmental fees
One common economic incentive for conservation is to implement environmental fees for visitors
enjoying the services of the rice terraces to contribute to the maintenance costs of the terraces
(Calderon et al., 2008). Some barangays, for instance Batad and Hungduan, collect environmental
fees at the entrance of the barangay. However, these fees are considered too low compared to the
willingness to pay (WTP) of tourists. After surveying tourists in different municipalities of Ifugao,
Figure 26 Shift in the demand of cultural ecosystem services. The Christianisation of the area led to a disruption of
the values and preferences resulting in a shift in the demand of the cultural ecosystem services related to religious
experience (adapted from Spangenberg et al., 2013).
Biophysical structure or
process
(e.g, rice terraces)
Ecosystem Services
Potential
(e.g. rice growth)
Ecosystem Services
(e.g. rice harvests)
Benefit
(religious experience)
Value
(religious value)
Alteration of landscape
planning, e.g. late planting
Rites change, e.g. rituals
Religion shift
involved in
77
Calderon et al. (2008) concluded that local tourists’ WTP fell in average between P 440 and P 5063
per person whereas average WTP of foreigners reached USD 71 and USD 77 per person. Therefore,
barangays could collect a P 50-fee per person from local tourists and USD 20 per person from
foreign tourists (significantly higher than the fees that are currently being collected, which range
from P10 to P30 per visitor), which could generate a total annual revenues of P 6.65 million
(Calderon et al., 2008). These revenues generated from cultural and environmental fees should be
retained where the fees are collected (i.e. in the barangay or municipality) and be placed in a trust
fund to be managed by a council that is not controlled by politicians to ensure continuity (Calderon
et al., 2008). Taxes on tourism infrastructure would be another way to capture the willingness to
pay of tourists and prevent excessive construction of hotels and guesthouses. Revenues from
tourists have the potential to significantly finance the restoration of the terraces and offset the
negative impacts of the tourism industry in the area.
5.3.2. Commercialization of tinawon rice
The commercialization of the local rice variety was suggested as a way to fill a market niche for
organic and quality rice and promote the conservation of traditional varieties (DENR, 2008). Such
commercialization of terroir products has succeeded in several cases to provide income to farmers
and conserve heirloom varieties of other crops such as coffee (Linton, 2008), Rooibos tea in Africa
(Raynolds and Ngcwangu, 2010) and Mantesoco cheese in Peru (Boucher and Gerz, 2006).
A commercialization project was started in Banaue in 2005 by the American company “Eighth
Wonder” and a local NGO “RICE Inc” (Revitalize Indigenous Cordilleran Entrepreneur). The
partnership acts as middlemen for producers of six barangays grouped under a cooperative; the
Rice Terraces Farmers’ Cooperative. Tinawon price is nearly twice the price of modern varieties
in Banaue market. This means that for one kilogram of tinawon sold, the farmers are able to buy
twice as much of other varieties. Marketing tinawon variety is thus an option to preserve the local
variety and improve food security. As opposed to tourism, the marketing of rice provides revenues
directly to farmers. Furthermore, the commercialization of tinawon rice has given a new value to
some cultural (symbolic) and material elements of tinawon rice required for its commodification
(Sekimoto and Augustin-Jean, 2012), a monetary value, as opposed to the previous spiritual or
3 1 Philippine Peso (P) ≈ 0.017 euros (€) or 0.023 US Dollar (USD).
78
religious value that is declining. Nonetheless, the production potential of tinawon is very limited
compared to other rice varieties and so are the potential benefits. The initiative has been for now
relatively successful, starting with 720 kg sold in 2005 to 24 000kg in 2012 (see Figure 27). The
counterpart of this initiative is the commercialization of a once sacred product. Further, it may give
an incentive to farmers to neglect and abandon the cultivation of other, less famous, endemic rice
varieties.
There are also disagreements between producers and middlemen relative to market prices and
product quality (broken grains must be lower than 15%, colour), considering the expectations on
the international market (Druguet, 2012; Sekimoto and Augustin-Jean, 2012). Finally, attributing
a monetary value to a cultural product may cause further erosion of the spiritual value of the variety,
and selling the rice could reduce its availability to farmers themselves, thus forcing them to rely
on imported rice.
RICE inc. also offers the possibility to “adopt a terrace”, an inititative that allows Filipinos and
foreigners alike to invest in the restoration of abandoned rice terraces. The funds then go to a
family affiliated with Rice Inc. and are used to repair colleapsed walls or irrigation systems (RICE
Inc., 2012). This is another economic initiative to capture the willingness to pay for the
conservation or the restoration of the terraces, in this case mostly from people outside the system.
Those economic initiatives are options to adapt to the new reality of the market economy that
Banaue is now facing. In an increasingly telecoupled world, farmers in Banaue will be increasingly
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Kg
Rice sold in kg Number of farmers involved
Figure 27 Amount of rice sold and number of farmers involved in the RICE Inc. project
(RICE Inc., 2012).
Perso
n
s
79
in contact, directly or indirectly, with consumers or tourists from abroad or the rest of the
Philippines. Commodification of the traditional rice variety may be an option to take advantage
from, and adapt to, the new socioeconomic reality.
5.3.3. Eco-tourism development
Ecotourism based on agriculture and cultural heritage is another possible option to reduce the
negative impacts of tourism and provide an additional income that can be used for the maintenance
of the terraces. Tourist spots should be extended throughout the province since only Viewpoint
and Batad are the main destinations for most tourists at the moment. If tourism activities are
concentrated in few areas, this could lead to more migration and inequity of funding.
Tourism brings vulnerability, since it is susceptible to cause some “harm” by increasing the area
of sealed surface and reduces the availability of water for irrigation. However, vulnerability, as
defined earlier, may not always be a negative attribute of the system. The different actors in the
systems have the possibility to reverse the “harm” and find creative ways to diversify their
livelihoods and participate in new opportunities from the exposure to tourism by developing the
Figure 28 Potential monetary benefits for the social-ecological system in Banaue. The solid black
line shows that the integration to the market economy and increasing tourism have increased off-
farm job opportunities and monetary income in the area. The system could be resilient and continue
on this path, benefiting from tourism through the marketing of handicrafts and vegetables (black
dashed line). The collection of environmental fees (dashed blue line) and the commercialization of
the traditional rice varieties (dashed red line) are two opportunities to provide supplemental monetary
benefits to the farmers.
80
ecotourism industry, collecting environmental and cultural fees and commercializing the
traditional rice (Figure 28).
5.3.4. Adoption of ecosystem-based crop management
As the earthworms represent the main pest in the three areas, research must be concentrated to
mitigate their adverse impacts on the structure of the terraces. This can be difficult since most rice
is produced in the lowlands in the Philippines, and therefore terrace erosion caused by earthworms
is not a major problem in the other provinces.
The most successful method until now has been to apply 150 g of chopped and pounded marigold
(Tagetes erecta) and 30 g of Melonoides granifera shell lime mixed with 500 ml in rice fields
(Millare, 2010). The Melonoides granifera shell lime is already widely used in Ifugao as
ingredients for chewing betel. It is therefore easily available at low cost. A similar experiment by
Allig (2013) showed that 100-300 g of powdered rock lime diluted in 8 and 12 liters jars is an
effective pesticide against earthworms. All the different concentrations (100, 200 and 300 g)
resulted in 100% mortality rate of the earthworms Pheretima elongate. Depending on the
concentration of the solutions, the worms would die between 6 and 13 minutes. The dust from the
powdered lime alters the body water balance of the worms and can be used to raise the pH of soils
(Allig, 2013). In previous experiments, it was not perceived as detrimental for rice production or
health, but further research would be needed to assess the impact on other aquatic species. At P30
per kilo, powdered rock lime is affordable to farmers, but still represents an additional cost to
maintain the rice production at the same level.
Regarding the apple snail, the fruits of Sandoricum vidalii or Bakuwog in the local dialect, of the
Meliaceae family, are thought to be a powerful natural pesticide against golden apple snail. Ngaloy
and colleagues (2002) reported that repeated application of the pounded fruit in rice fields were
very efficient the kill the snail. However, no scientific experiment have been conducted to
determine, for instance, the proper amount of fruits to use or the potential negative effects on other
aquatic species. No farmers in this survey indicated using or knowing the efficiency of this natural
pesticide. Furthermore, the Sandoricum vidalii, endemic to the province of Ifugao, was placed on
the list of vulnerable species by the IUCN because of “rates of habitat loss through logging and
shifting cultivation”.
81
Better seed management is another option to improve crop growth without introducing inorganic
fertilizer or pesticides. Sigari and colleagues (2005) suggest to cover seedbeds with a plastic cover
for the thirty first days to build and maintain a higher temperature inside and therefore offset the
cold climate of the region. Their experiment on the Palawan rice variety showed that this method
can increase seedling height of 60%, shoot dry weight of 27%, root dry weight of 22% and the
number of seedlings per m2 by 15% compared to traditional nurseries.
5.3.5. Introduction of environmental and cultural impact assessments
The adoption of guidelines for conservation and for procedures of an Environmental Impact
Assessment concerning the implementation of major projects was suggested by the UNESCO
(2012) for Banaue. Impact assessments allow for the use of the best available knowledge to
consider the long-term impact of a development project on the environment and the people. By
incorporating local knowledge systems into such assessments, it should be possible to identify the
best available mitigation measures that are attuned to the heritage and culture of the community
and that minimize the adverse impacts that come with any proposed development (Nozawa et al.,
2008).
In principle, the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), of the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR), administers the environmental impact assessment system in the
Philippines (Ingelson et al., 2009). Environmentally critical projects and projects located in
environmentally critical areas must go through the impact assessment procedures (DENR, 1996).
However, some projects are deemed not “environmentally critical” enough, and therefore can skip
the standard procedures. This was the case, for instance, of the Ifugao-Ambangal Mini-hydro
Project. The impact assessment, because of the small-scale of the project, was carried out on a
voluntary basis by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the project initiator (E8 general secretariat,
2010).
Impact assessments consider projects of a certain size, but cannot assess the impact of each houses
built among rice terraces. There are at the moment no local land use plans that ensure the
preservation of the rice terraces and modern structures stand out and often do not blend with the
terraced landscape (Nozawa et al., 2008). Houses have already been built on terraces in the town
of Banaue, and this process will likely increase if population continues to expand. Therefore, an
environmental impact assessment should specifically target urban sprawl in the town of Banaue
82
and road development across the municipality. A good first step in this direction is the
environmental risk assessment related to biodiversity loss of the Halsema Highway linking
Banaue to Bontoc and Baguio (Untalan et al., 2013). The construction of the highway on an
existing smaller road has for objective to infuse economic investments and activity into the
rural areas. However, the existing road has already had negative impacts on historical sites,
biodiversity, erosion and human health (Untalan et al., 2013).
5.3.6. Instilling values among youth
One major challenge that will face the Ifugao families in the upcoming decades is to convince the
next generation to continue rice farming. The loss of cultural traditions and the prospect of jobs
outside the province could trigger a faster emigration towards neighboring lowland provinces or
Manila. An option suggested to keep the youth in the province is to provide students with
incentives such as scholarships and jobs that could rekindle interest in agriculture and forestry-
related courses (Calderon et al., 2008; Dizon et al., 2012). In order to conserve both the landscape
aesthetics and the cultural heritage, inter-generational transfer of knowledge will be needed to keep,
or build on, traditional knowledge and slow down the erosion of, or renew, cultural ecosystem
services. The decline in the practice of ritual might be irreversible, but the ecological knowledge
embedded into the rituals should be conserved. For instance, biological pesticides should be
documented and timeliness taken into account in the rice cultivation. Delays in rice harvest can
result in very important pest damage. As an example, a crop development varying by up to 6 weeks
compared to the initial cropping season can result in a 330% increase in rodent population (Miller
et al., 2008). This could be seen as the “remember” process, by which the reorganized knowledge
system draws upon, and is influenced by, previous states of the system. As Folke (2006) states,
memory is the accumulated experience and history of the system, and it provides context and
sources for renewal, recombination, innovation, novelty and self-organization following
disturbance.
5.3.7. Local leadership
Strong leadership might be needed to reverse the trends of abandonment and reliance on the
government and UNESCO. Some community traditions such as baddang for the maintenance of
the terraces and irrigation canals, and ubbu for shared work on harvests are not as common as
83
before, while it is still common in other provinces. Rather, the farmers noticed that cooperative
community work has been replaced by reliance on government help. The presence of legitimate
leaders in small communities has proven in many instances to increase resilience and adaptive
governance (Westley et al., 2013), e.g. in wetland cultural landscapes (Olsson et al., 2004) and in
coastal fisheries (Gutiérrez et al., 2011). Respected community leaders, when guided by collective
interests and not self-benefits, give resilience to changes in governance, influence users’
compliance to regulations and enhance conflict resolutions (Gutiérrez et al., 2011). Trusted leaders
is of particular relevance in the Philippines, where corruption within the political elite is a rampant
issue (Hutchcroft, 2000; Hicken, 2008; Mehta and Jha, 2012).
Leadership would also be beneficial to maintain cohesion between several new actors in the system,
e.g. middlemen in handicrafts and rice commercialization, international organizations and non-
governmental organizations, tourism sector and the farmers themselves. For instance, broad-
minded church groups should be encouraged to recognize the relevance of continuing the rituals
and practices (including the survival of the mumbaki, the native priests) associated with rice
farming (Nozawa et al., 2008).
84
6. Conclusions
The environment in which the Ifugaos have evolved serves not only as a legacy of the Ifugaos
human achievements. In the Philippines, the terraces are commonly known as the “eighth wonder
of the world”, showing the importance of the landmark for the whole country. Internationally, the
inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List and as one of the Globally Important Agricultural
Heritage Sites points out the culturally rich legacy of the co-development between human
communities and ecosystems. Therefore, the preservation of the terraces and the traditional culture
is of utmost importance.
Five key findings can be pointed out from this research:
1) There is a decreasing trend concerning the cultural services provided by the ecosystems to
the residents of the five barangays. This comes in the form of declining religious experience
related to rice, decreasing ritual practices and dwindling knowledge from ecosystems.
Furthermore, this shift in cultural services could be hard to reverse because of the new
religion in Ifugao (Calderon et al., 2008). Additionally, the social organization and
autonomy became less robust as exposure to modern culture from Manila and foreign
countries increased though tourism and telecommunications. As a result, reliance on the
government increased, with more farmers awaiting for governmental aid to repair the
collapsed walls and fewer farmers practicing the traditional ubbu and baddang. This
erosion of social organization and knowledge was observed by Nozawa et al. (2010) as
well. However, cultural services as a whole may not be in decline since services from the
landscape are being appreciated by tourists for aesthetics, cultural experience and
recreational activities. Also, new ecological knowledge, for instance introduced by famers
or scientists from other provinces or abroad, could improve the adaptability of the system
to disturbances, to which the local population is not used to cope with, e.g. exotic pest
species or climate change.
2) The loss of cultural services (here rituals) impacts not only on the knowledge system but
also on the ecosystems. Less rituals, combined with reduction of labor on the rice field,
85
result in a decreasing synchronization of crops. The consequences of such change are the
higher vulnerability to pests, more specifically rodents and rice bugs.
3) This survey reiterates conclusions of previous literature regarding pest species and the lack
of knowledge to mitigate their impact on rice cropping. Earthworms, R. Tanezumi and P.
caniculata are new variables that farmers have to cope with, and all increase the labor
requirement to maintain the same level of harvest. Farmers have also expressed concerns
about a newly introduced eel that is allegedly more damaging to the rice terraces.
4) Evidence shows that forest clearing is not an issue anymore. Forest area is in fact increasing,
possibly due to the gradual abandonment of shifting cultivation.
5) There is a noticeable change in climate from the low level of water in the fields, despite
harder rains. This climatic change, characterized in the area by longer drought periods and
more intense precipitation during typhoons will probably be exacerbated by earthworm and
eel pests and by the expansion of the built-up areas and sealed surfaces.
6) The inheritance system specific to Ifugao seems to offset the consequences of high birth
and migration rate. From migration also come remittances, which allow the migrant’s kin
to invest in agricultural production and improve their livelihood (McKay, 2003). At the
moment, the study site has not been unsustainably overpopulated, nor is it suffering from
high emigration, although the population around Banaue greatly increased in the last 20
years.
This thesis used eight indicators integrating social, economic and ecological components of
human-modified ecosystems to assess the state of a rice-based agroecological landscape. From
these indicators, vulnerability, resilience and adaptability was inferred, taking into consideration
disturbance, exposure and sensitivity. In order to better assess the long-term development of the
region, more indicators should be used and more data would be needed. For instance, an exhaustive
biodiversity survey similar to the one undertaken by the Cordillera Administrative Region
government (DENR, 2011) in the province of Hungduan should be realized in Banaue. Further,
86
data should be available at different intervals to give a better idea of the trajectory of the system,
of its resilience and adaptability.
The Ifugao rice terraces are a feat of landscape engineering and in many aspects, a model of
sustainability. The traditional knowledge and the ecosystems are a product of long-term co-
evolution which has resulted in a unique and complex social-ecological system. This system
seemed to be now subject to many pressures, which threaten its durability. This research shows
that some pressures are not as serious as previously thought before, since the system has adapted
to them. However, some disturbances are continuous and increasing in importance and could cause
a regime shift of the system.
87
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Appendix I: Household Survey for Banaue
Barangay HH ID Date
HH members Ethnicity
Household members
Kin relationship Name Sex M,F Age
1 Respondent
2 children
3 parents
4
5
(Adult) child living abroad? Do you have siblings living abroad? Do they send remittance?
1. Economic viability
Rice production by plot
• How many Payo fields do you have? ______
• What is the overall area of your Payo fields? __________ m² or __________ha
Field Rice variety Do you use pesticides? Chemical fertilizer? Best plots/worst plots in production
1
2
3
4
others
• Did you sell rice last year? How much (bags, kg)? Income?
Productivity change over the last 10 years
Increase/decreased By how much? Reasons
+/0/-
2. Self-sufficiency
0-2 months 2-4 months 5-7 months 8-10 months 11-12 months
For how long can you have rice after a harvest?
Change in the last 10 years (+/-)
Note
Pinugo/Muyung production by plot
Use of trees Tree varieties Yield (bags, kg) Sold products
Firewood
Food (fruits, wild tea, chewing bettel nuts...)
Medicine
Wood carving/tying
Construction
Natural pesticide
Fertilizer
Other?
If no longer having Muyung, when did you stop?
What overall area of Pinugo __________ m²
Habar production by plot
Plant varieties Yield (bags, kg) Income
Kamote
Ginger
Pechay
String beans
Other?
If no longer having Swiddens, when did you stopped?
What overall area of Habal __________ m²
3. Heterogeneity
What is the proportion of ... that you own
Payo Muyung/Pinugo Habal/
kaingin
Grassland Other
(garden)
How was this proportion 10 years ago?
4. Redundancy/Multifunctionality What do you do with rice stalks and residue after harvest? Put it back in Payo soil Burn it Other
Do you make Inago during fallow season? Which vegetables do you grow?
How many sources of food do you have in Payo? 1. Golden Kuhol
2. Baticol
3. Ginga
4. Aggudong
5. Tilapia
6. Chulog
7. Yuyu
8. Million fish
9. Olippo
10. Allama
11. Te’am
12. Appako
13. Tuyong
14. Uchang
15. Dongla
16. Water criese
17. Gabi
18. Other
Source of food not cultivated anymore?
Reason
5. Honors legacy
Is primogeniture still practised (leave the paddies to the oldest child)? If not, since when?
Are your children interested in continuing rice farming?
How many of your children speak your mother tongue?
How many rituals related to rice do you have?
From the ones practised by your parents, how many do you practise?
How many generations interact with the landscape for subsistence and income?
Are the woman in the household as involved as men in rice cultivation
6. Demographics Not enough Acceptable Enough Not enough money
Are there enough people to help you in busy times
of rice growing period? (planting, harvesting)
Are there enough people to help you in repairing
terraces or maintaining irrigation canals?
Were there more people to help in the past? Rice growing Terraces maintenance
Do you still practice Ububo and Bayanihan
7. Disturbances
Almost nothing (0-20%) Little (20-40%)
Half (40-60%) Many (60-80%)
Almost all (80-100%)
How many of your terraces are
damaged/destroyed
Change in the last 10 years (+/-)
Main reason
How many irrigation canals are
damaged/destroyed
Change in the last 10 years (+/-)
Main reason
How much are your rice fields
lacking water?
Change in the last 10 years (+/-)
Main reason
What are in order the most damaging
pests in your field?
Earthworm
Kuhol
Grass-Hoppers
Rats
Birds
Ants
Leaffolder
Stem-borers
Others, Which ones?
Do you know natural ways to get
rid of pest species? Which ones?
HH member Tourism activity Since when (yrs) Hours/day or week Source of material
Carving, sell, guide, homestay, other
Carving, sell, guide, homestay, other
Carving, sell, guide, homestay, other
If not tourism, why? Share to total HH cash income (%)
Note
8. Connectedness
How many buyers are there of handicrafts?
Tourist in Barangay Market/shop in Bgy Shop outside Bgy Other
How many buyers are there of the
agricultural products
Declaration
Herewith, I declare that this thesis has been completed independently and unaided and that no
other sources other than the ones given here have been used.
The submitted written version of this work is the same as the one electronically saved and
submitted on CD.
Furthermore, I declare that this work has never been submitted at any other time and anywhere
else as a final thesis.
__________________ ______________________________
Date Signature